Featured Andypandy & Thebiglad's Pyrenees Trip

Today rode from Agen to the outskirts of Bergerac with @thebiglad which was about 100 km then we split up. As we left the hotel we rode by the river which looked quite pretty with the morning mist hovering above it but we soon ran into thick cold mist. It lasted for 30 km or more. We got very cold and as Dave said, he couldn't see Jack Shit After 50 km we stopped for breakfast and you could look back down the valley, still full of mist and I couldn't see Jack Shit anywhere. So after Bergerac Dave headed off home and I'm now in Tours for the night. Off to Caen tomorrow. Sorry no pics.

 

Today I'm riding north from Tours to Caen. Stopped after about 40 km for croissant and coffee and met an English geezer who was travelling south to Valencia for the winter, he was towing this:-

I nearly bought a dominator as a second bike in my late teens but my dad talked me out of it.

 

Last day in France so I'm doing the Normandy coast. Started off at the German war cemetery at La Cambe.










The graves each held two bodies, the big mound is a mass grave, there are 21,000 buried there in total.
Then I stopped off in Grandcamp-Maisy for Moules et Frites. Well someone had to do it.

 

And for our American members, here's a few pictures I took at Point Du Hoc, where a group of Rangers led by Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder scaled the cliffs on D Day and successfully attacked the German gun battery, repelling several counter attacks.






The last picture is of Omaha beach.

 

Home now. A total of 2,255 miles which is nowhere near @BonnieCat 's epic total. But then i've not got as much padding on my arse have I Nikki ?
The best bit by far was the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. Nicer roads, warmer, sunnier, nicer food, cheaper food, beer and petrol. Bit of a drag was the French Autoroutes. I think I'd do Portsmouth Santander next time and spend longer in Spain. Best place, Jaca.

 

First of all it was sunny so that was a great start. Where I come from (about 15 miles from Manchester in north west England, we don't see a lot of sun, indeed, Manchester is known as Rainy City) Going on from that, it's an old city, lot's of narrow cobbled streets and old buildings, so there's bags of character. There are places to see. We looked around the old cathedral and an old fort with an extensive defensive perimeter consisting of a dry moat and lots of gun emplacements laid out in a pentagonal shape. It's lively. There are lot's of bars and eating places. The Spanish tend to eat late in the evening, about 10:00pm so the city is very vibrant till late at night. Just a great place to be. To be honest though it's like many other Spanish towns and cities. Barcelona springs to mind as another vibrant place to be. Contrasted with France for instance where every town/village is deserted, a lot of places just don't open in the evenings and things are much more expensive. Also, the Spaniards seem happier people to me.