Day 57 - Ceret to Figueres - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

June 13, 2023

Day 57 - Ceret to Figueres

The Pyrenees Are Done But The Gorging Continues

Today was one of shattering preconceptions, all in a good way.

I mentioned yesterday that one of the reasons we were in Ceret was so we could ride back into Spain on the D13. This will be the reverse of what Team Anderson did in the spring of 2022 and that Leo Woodland brought to light in a forum post that I can no longer find.

As usual Scott A does a wonderful write up of the history of this very interesting boarder crossing, and we wanted to try it out for ourselves. As a slight off ramp, as I was copying the link to the TA journal I reread some of their day … and it turns out we stayed at the same B&B they did - Poppy’s, a lovely place run by an English expat couple. It is a small world and this is not the first time that we’ve discovered that we’ve stayed in the same establishments as other CB’ers.

Anyway back to the program. This route is a bit of an anomaly in the current Schengen world in that the D13 climbs ‘nearly’all the way to the Coll de Manderll, but it stops short by about 800 m where it turns into a dirt road that is barricaded by large boulders right at the France / Spain border. This is where the monument to Lluis Companys is (again refer to Scott’s lucid description of this and of M. Companys) and, where the perfectly paved two lane G501 road starts on the Spanish side. Given that the D13 is essentially a road to ‘nowhere’ for car traffic, it promised to be a car free climb, not that any of the climbs we’ve had anywhere in France or Spain have been ‘busy’.

Once again we got off to an early start as the weather forecast was… guess what … clear blue skies until about 2 pm when the rain would start … again. The climb was very much like yesterday’s except that the D13 was an old traditional narrow 1 lane French D road. Perfect … and scenic.

About 15 minutes into the climb, a series of six vehicles come at us from uphill. I checked the time and saw it was about 9:45 and I figured that this was ‘morning rush hour’ for folks who lived up in the remote valley and were headed to work.

About 15 minutes later, on a narrow quite exposed section, I heard the unmistakable sound of a large diesel engine truck coming from around the next curve. I stopped and pulled off onto the very edge of the road, essentially standing on a cliff, when low and behold a very large double axel cement truck comes slowly around the corner and passes me with less than a metre to spare!

All in we saw at least 15 cars/vans and TWO of these large cement trucks plus two other equally large tanker trucks on this road ….that goes nowhere!! It was all very safe but we were really shaking our heads as to why there was far more traffic on this road, which was one of the most remote we’ve been on, than any others in France or Spain. One of life’s little mysteries.

Anyway, the climb to the pass was good, decent grades, the rain held off and once we were back into Spain we were freewheeling down the G501 - nice two lane road …. With NO vehicles and just a few roadies!

Just like yesterday as well, we were incentivized to make good time to Figueres to outrun the rain. We made an ‘audible’ route change at La Vojal where RWGPS had us heading east for a few km’s into the broad el Llobregat river valley and into Figueres. We took a punt on our theory that riding any of the minor G roads would be good and continued straight south on the G501 and it turned out to be a wonderful ride.

Our other major incentive to get to Figueres quickly was food related (no kidding!).

Anyone who’s been reading along has probably figured out that we use the Michelin guide to search out restaurants in the areas we’re going through. Awhile back, while we were looking around Figueres, we saw that there was only one Michelin recommended restaurant there. An establishment that is a bit of an institution in Figueres and that has featured in the Michelin guide for decades … The El Motel.

Yes, the El Motel. The rest of this is going to sound pretty juvenile, but guess what, that’s us! For weeks we’ve been making jokes about the El Motel … let’s get sombrero’s and wear them there … let find an El Camino to rent and drive there in it … and so on and so on.

The restaurant has a very long and excellent reputation as an exemplar of fine traditional Catalan cuisine … but we just couldn’t shake the cheesy image of a dusty Route 66 type of motel … and all I would have to do was say ‘El Motel’ and K would start giggling. Anyway, the restaurant is now located in the Hotel Empordà, and we had booked ourselves in there for the night.

It also looked like the restaurant … the classic ‘El Motel’ was only open for lunch (classic traditional Catalonia), with dinner being served in another place in the hotel. If we made it to the hotel early enough, not only could we avoid the rain, we could have a great traditional Catalonian lunch too.

We pulled up to the hotel at 1:45, were warmly greeted and shown to the great bike storage room, and by 2:20 were cleaned up and seated in the covered terrace at the exceptionally lovely El Motel restaurant … and the place was pretty much full … on a Tuesday! Oh, and it started to pour down with rain.

Perfect timing.

Cheesy jokes aside, the El Motel was fantastic. Casually elegant, traditionally professional (white coats on all the wait staff) and friendly, and the food was superb. Traditional but presented in a contemporary style. What a great way to end the Pyrenees section of this tour. We started on a culinary high note in San Sebastion, and finished on an equally high note here in Figueres.

Given the large lunch, we had the 6 course set menu and one of us also had the wine pairing :), and the rain that continued to chuck down, we didn’t get out to see much of the city.

We’ll fix that tomorrow. We’re going to tour the citadel in the morning and we have a booking at the Dali museum (Salvador Dali was from here) at noon. We then have a short ride down to Cadaqués where we start the last phase of the tour - the aforementioned ‘Beach Blanket Bingo’ part. See, still juvenile.

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SOTD - Lonely Boy, The Black Keys

It couldn’t be anything else. Ever since we read about the El Motel, this song …. and video, has been stuck in my mind. From the classic Black Keys El Camino album, where the album cover has an old Dodge mini van as an inside joke on the El Camino, to the singularly great video where the dancing dude is in front of a door to what looks like a motel … the El Motel for us… this has been our inside running joke too. I might be the only one laughing, but it’s a great song and video, and every time I hear it I’m going to think about the great lunch at the elegant if oddly named El Motel. Works for me.

Heading off in the morning from Poppy’s. Lovely place and a great breakfast to power us up the climb.

K’s fav pic’s .. the Tout’s room for the night

And up we go, classic small French D roads. This is the D13 heading up to almost the Spanish border. There are no villages, just a few houses and no where that this road goes. We should have it all to ourselves.

We are going to top out up there and then head down out of the Pyrenees and into Figueres.

I swear I can hear a big diesel engine around that corner!

Holy S%#t Batman, that thing just barely made it by me!

I was standing off the edge of the pavement in that space between the rock railing with my bike right on the edge of the pavement

And then there was another one about 15 minutes later!!

Pavement ends and dirt road starts about 800 m before the border

And the perfect Spanish G501 starts here.

The Lluis Companys memorial. He’s a Catalan national hero with many places named after him, not just this remote memorial.

You can just make out the G501 heading south and out of the Pyrenees. Not many pic’s of the great ride down, we were outrunning the weather and trying to make a lunch date!

It’s still a close race between us and the weather. Getting close to Figueres now

Cool sculpture reminding people to donate blood … pretty random thing to see at the side of a road!

We made it to our lunch date … and this is what we had … pic’s to follow.

The poached egg carrots and chanterelles

Served on a very elegant terrace overlooking a garden with orange and lemon trees … and rain!

… and K’s selection from the dessert trolly!

That’s it for the day, and for the Pyrenees. Both have been wonderful. Costa Brava tomorrow!

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,470 km (1,534 miles)

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