My coastal trip was coming to an end and the Pyrenees mountains were my next destination. I left the coast in preference for some nice roads outlined in my book – ‘Best Rides – Motorcycle Atlas of France’ and plotted a course to Pau. This took me inland then south. I don’t know what the area is like if I had followed coastal roads from Bordeaux to Biarritz so I guess I will have to leave that for another day.
The great weather continues. What can I say – every day is sunny with some clouds and temperatures to the mid 70’s. It could not have been better riding weather. As soon as I got into the Pyrenees foothills I knew I was going to like this leg of the journey. You have to see and drive it to appreciate it. I took pictures so hopefully it will stimulate some of you to give them a try.
Anyway, before I get ahead of myself, I have to tell you about another interesting stop in wine country south of Bordeaux. I am driving through some pretty country on highway D-118 (I think) near Bodus, when all of a sudden I see off into the grape vines the tall walls of an ancient medieval castle standing tall in the grape field.
Bordeaux country where grapes are everywhere.
There were no signs for this and it was not a tourist stop. I found what looked like a road that would lead up to it but it was rather steep and gravely and with a full travel load on my bike I thought it best not to make the attempt. I drove 100 meters further on and found a farm road that wound out into the grape vineyard.
I followed it to a point where I could see the wall and parked to walk over to it for a closer inspection.
As I got closer, I could hear a tink-tink-tink sounds from a hammer hitting stone coming from within the castle walls. As I got closer I cold see what looked like college students using hammers and chisels tapping on stone blocks. I thought that was intriguing. They were forming flat surfaces on stones for what I supposed was a college class designed to show students how stones were formed before being used for castle walls. I introduced myself to the students and took some pictures of the area as well as them working. It was another interesting rest stop while on the road.
Here are two co-eds and an Afghan student tinkering away. I think they were going to restore the castle one stone at a time.
I find that the stops can be as interesting as traveling the roads. The combination of them both makes for very interesting trips.
I was getting hungry so I jaunted off the GPS route at the nearest small town and stopped at the village square. I parked under a tree and got my lunch fixins’ out and had a nice rest. When lying back under the tree I saw that they had trained the sycamore trees to provide for the shade of the square. I see a lot of sycamore trees on the trips and many interesting ways they use them. Many provide Grand Allees along the routes into and out of towns and some are trimmed square but I had never seen them trained to provide a trellis of shade overhead.
Driving along I saw this view as I crossed a bridge in a small town.
Continuing along I started into the foot hills and right away I knew this was going to be glorious.
Finally, I reached Pau and unpacked all my gear. I had been hearing my front brake scratch from time to time and did not fancy heading up into the mountains with them sounding like that so I headed out to get my evening ready-meal, a full petrol tank and stopped at the local Honda dealer for a look-see at my brakes. They installed new front brake pads in about 20 minutes and I drove off feeling much better. In under an hour, I had gotten my food, gas and new brakes installed. I was ready for the mountains.
No comments:
Post a Comment