St Girons to Aramits

St. Girons to Aramits. July 23.

After the excitement of yesterday, we could not wait to get a spot on the side of a mountain for today.

We decided on Col de Portet d’Aspet just out of St Lary. The only problem was, when would they close the road? After some initial hold ups by some very confused Gendarmes, we managed to make it almost to St. Lary, by driving around some back roads. With a GPS and Michelin map book you can go any where. We parked about 2 kms out of town – (they wouldn’t let us go any further), and walked into St. Lary to await the “Caravan” We had found out they slowed down in the towns and you got more “stuff”. A couple of cyclists stopped near me ( many, many cyclists ride the stage, or part of it) I noticed they were wearing cycling jerseys from a Hobart bike shop. Sure enough they were from Tassie and had bought 2 bikes they day before for Euro156.00 each. Good bikes – NO! I was told. Crappy gears and they were really heavy, but they said it was a bit of fun and they would sell them in a week or so.

Our information about the caravan was correct. Rebecca picked a spot on her own, on the opposite side of the road to most of the others, and soon had a huge collection of stuff. It could just get to washing machine - we were accumulating plenty of washing powder samples. Lots of keys rings, quite a few hats and some little sausages called “Fagots”

Once the caravan had passed we walked about 2 km up the mountain. Bugger riding up it – it was quite hot, and walking was hard enough. We found a spot on a corner at the top of quite a long straight stretch and only 2 other groups of people were their. We had bought our French “esky” with us and had a picnic – the usual Baguette, Jambon and fromage. ( Bread ham and cheese for the English speaking), washed down with a couple of strange tasting beers. We think it had Tequila and lime in it.

The usual helicopters and motorbikes announced the riders. No Cadel in the first group – not good! But we gave them a good “Allay, Allay, Allay”. Then a big group – this one had Cadel. So it was “Aussie Aussie Aussie – go Cadel. He passed really close to Rebecca and looked up when he heard the “Go Cadel” and Australian Accent. That made her day!

A long walk back down, a “natural” stop on the way – work it out, and we were back to the car. Off to Aramits. I thought it was about 100km away – a map check revealed it to be about 200km away. Never mind it was a lovely day and the scenery very easy on the eye.

We eventually got to the village of Aramits – drove around it twice. Aramits is not a big place. No sign of our B + B. A check of the booking did not help – no address. Just the name of the place, Aramits and a phone number. After asking several people and no- one having heard of them we had to make a call. I remembered from their website that they were up on a hill overlooking the village, but of course did not know which hill, and there were quite a few. Fortunately they answered their phone, and came to meet us – it is on a hillside out of Aramits and we would never have found it on our own – lots of little roads and no signs!

The place is lovely – it was once a farm and they have converted the main Farmhouse into a collection of guest rooms and have converted one of the barns into a games room, 2 little flats, and a dining area. They also have a pool! It is owned by “retired” English couple who I think are not short of a quid. We had booked the rooms in the Farmhouse. The girls even had a room each! Quite a change from the many nights we had spent all in one room.