Beta needed...Heading to the French Pyrenees

[phatfreeheeler]

The wife and I are thinking of flying into Barcelona in late July (maybe hit a beach for 2 days to relax and then head up into the French Pyrenees). Once there we would like to ride mountain bikes on good trails and catch a couple of the TdF stages in the Pyrenees. We are more than willing to pedal a road or mountain bike up to the top of one of the passes to watch them come through and be a part of the mayhem. We'd then catch a quick flight up to Paris to see the finish and enjoy a couple more days there before flying home. Anyone have info on where to stay in the Pyrenees, rent decent mountain bikes, and find some kick butt trails to ride? We ride road bikes as well, but figure 1) mountain biking in Europe sounds way cooler, 2) every road bike in the area will already be rented out.

Cost is less of a concern than having an awesome time as this our tenth anniversary trip and we really have never celebrated our anniversary before...woops, my bad

[XXX-er]

Did the 5 major climbs of the TDF in the french pyrennes in 2007, on the french side there are pensions everywhere and campgrounds in every small town, camping was a pretty cheap way to go (no cooking gear just a cheese knife & wine glasses) what took us 5 days with panniers the Pro riders on the TDF do in one stage, we rode 5-6 hrs per day which in the pyrennes was usually one col and stayed in the next town

in 2012 we did the camino pilgrimage in northern Spain by bike, we brought our mtnbikes /tent/panniers but we found they don't really camp in spain so no campgrounds, otoh food/accomadations were cheap probably cheaper than france and we stayed in pensions.

We met a girl who rented from bike Iberia it looked like a nice 30spd HT (giant I think?), bike was in her room when she arrived and she was going to just leave it in her room at the end, I recommended Bike Iberia to a friend and she did the Camino last september... she seemed happy

In 2007 it wasn't too bad but it has since got to be more hassles and extra baggage costs to shlep my own bike around ... In spain I would just rent from bike Iberia

[Incompetent Boob]

I guess you could hit up Andorra - good trails and plenty of MTB infrastructure.

[Benny Profane]

If you're in Barcelona, try to get up to Girona. A lot of pro road riders live there, Lance had an apartment when he was winning the tours. Old twelfth century town with awesome biking, both road and MTB, from what I understand. I'll bet there's a few bike shops there to rent.

[phatfreeheeler]

Thanks, good start in the research process. Hoping to get everything setup by the end of the month.

[phatfreeheeler]

Thinking of renting a house in Lourdes as a home base. Seems like it's smack in the middle for the stages and we'll have a car for getting around. Any good trail riding in the area, bike shops, restaurant scene etc?

[blunder]

I'm currently staying in Pau for two months. Didn't bring a bike and the mountains have been filled with snow anyway so can't offer any first hand info.

Lourdes is, as you say, right in the middle of the mountains. They have a funicular right outside of town that i think you can bring your bike on to and have some nice rides from. The town it self is kinda dull. Its one of the major pilgrim-sites and the whole town seems centered around religous tourism. Lots of tourist shops and i expect rent would reflect that its quite busy on summers. Its also not the prettiest town.

Pau, in comparision, is much nicer. Lots of nice restaurants (if you go check le berry, amazing bistro) etc and they have more cultural things to do (concerts, festivals). Valle d'Ossau, the closest valley to Pau, has some route suggestions on their tourism website (http://www.valleedossau-tourisme.com...oucles-vtt.php). I would expect that all the valleys have something similiar on their tourism website so it shouldn't be hard to find some decent riding.

The northern parts of the french pyrenees gets a lot of rain that comes from the Atlantic. I was really surprised when i drove from the France to Spain through a tunnel. On the french side you had lush and wet steep mountains and on the spanish side you had arrid sloping hills with cactuses.

Sorry i cant offer any better info but ask and maybe i can find something out.

[rod9301]

I'm thinking of spending a year in the french pyrennees, a bit closer to the mountains, les cauterets, or some other smaller towns. Hautes pyrenees for sure.

Hows the cost of living compared to western us, assuming you rent a small house, food, car, lift passes, etc?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using TGR Forums

[XXX-er]

Lourdes is like Disneyland for Catholics, dozens of people entire tours in wheelchairs with nuns pushing them all hoping to become well and actualy there was a true miracle when we were there

[phatfreeheeler]

Lourdes is like Disneyland for Catholics, dozens of people entire tours in wheelchairs with nuns pushing them all hoping to become well and actualy there was a true miracle when we were there

Good beta...while raised catholic, I don't want any part of that. Investigating Pau now.

[XXX-er]

This woman was too sick to move so they hoisted her wheel chair and all into the healing waters, when they hoisted her out she was still a cripple ... but the wheel chair had new tires



One good tip I can give about touring is to get a michelen guide, stay on the yellow or white roads, yellow will be a beautiful paved 2 lane country road with almost no traffic the sycamore tree every 100 meters while the white roads would probably be a dirt road in N.A. but they pave everything over there even the maintenance access roads in ski areas we ran road slicks on mtnbikes no problem

[Crystal_Mt_Dreamin]

This woman was too sick to move so they hoisted her wheel chair and all into the healing waters, when they hoisted her out she was still a cripple ... but the wheel chair had new tires

LOL


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[utsnowgirl]

Anyone know anything about Tarbes? Worth staying there? Pau seems awesome, but will require quite a bit of driving to see a couple stages of le Tour. Tarbes seems a bit closer. Is it another Disneyland for Catholics?