Ken's ancestral tour through
SW France - 8 - Condom to Argèles Gazost

Tuesday 1st July 2003 - Tour de France country

This was the day we abandoned the ancestors & went into country familiar from watching the Tour de France. We wanted to examine the frightful passes the riders have to go over. Breakfast at 0730 again & away by 0815. We used a bit of road we had been down before as far as Valence, where we went off on the D939, a delightful road going due south through gradually more and more rolling agricultural country until we reached the main road to Tarbes, which then climbed out of the Baise valley & over the watershed to the Adour system. Eventually, we had our first view of the elusive Pyrenees. We went into Tarbes but, although the centre did not seem too bad, there was nowhere to park & precious little, if anything, remained of historic Bigorre Town. So, we headed South through a number of rich-looking villages which is where the better-off Tarbians live, to Bagneres & into the Campan valley, stopping at the village itself (in English!) for coffee in the Hotel Beausauvages. The road starts to climb to Sainte Marie des Campan, where the serious climb to the Col de Tourmalet (English option, does La Mongie & Baregues as well) goes off to the right, which we took. But a few miles before that, we stopped at the horrible ski resort of La Mongie, almost completely new build.

We decided that, in view of the suspect cloud conditions, €20 each for the gondola to Pic Midi de Bigorre was not worth it & carried on up to the Col summit. The view forward is even more spectacular that the view back. We had lunch in the café at the top, with many cyclists hanging around, justifiably resting after their ordeal but then a coach party of crumblies appeared & filled the place. We had a ham salad starter, beautifully roast chicken & Tarte Basque (of course) for pud.

We continued down & turned right in the direction of the highly avoidable Lourdes but stopped at Argèles Gazost (in Spanish. I suppose we are lucky it's not in Basque) at about three, finding the Hotel Les Cimes (in French), which had a pretty atrium leading to the main building & a glorious view South to the hills, second only to the view from the Weggis Seehof in our experience together. I rang our friend near Biarritz successfully this time & we arranged to spend tomorrow night there. After a snooze, we swam in their pool, which is in a sort of conservatory & quite warm. It had a wave-making machine, very fierce. After, we spoke to two Parisiens, who were quite human. I told them of our French connections. We walked into the town, looking for a restaurant & eventually asked the pretty girl in the Tourist Office. She really only suggested ones out of town so we went back to our hotel.Good decision, althouh it meant we had two full dinners in one day. An odd lentil & salmon starter, pork medallions & creme brule for Avis & apple pie for me. Excellent. Like several of these Pyreneean towns, Argeles has architecture which reminds one of England, as in the Peak District or Lake District, not the Alps, which the hills don't resemble either.