Biarritz to Hondarribia

October 1, 2021

Reluctant to leave Biarritz, we lounged over breakfast gazing at the view until checkout at 11am. It was another clear, bright day with the promise of some heat in the afternoon. Wanting to stay along the waterfront, we ignored both the Eurovelo signs and GPS routing for a beautiful ride down to some funky surfer beaches -until we hit the dead end and had to push our loaded bikes up a very steep path. Just at the south end of the city, the terrain gets hilly, the Pyrénées are in full view and the buildings have alpine with steep roofs and bright red shutters.

The town square in Bidart certainly had the alpine look and was perfect for lunch with a boulangerie, a public washroom and amazing views in all directions. The gorgeous scenery continued all the way to Hendaye; today was definitely one of the best riding days in France!

One thing that wasn't going well was our search for a shop to replace Ann's broken spoke. There was nothing in the main part of Biarritz but google showed a number of bike shops in St. Jean de Luz. Now that we know about lunch closing, we dallied to arrive at 2pm just as they were re-opening, but they were far more interested in renting or selling electric bikes and said they could not replace a spoke - "Try Hendaye, or even better, across the river in Spain". Hendaye was another picturesque resort town with a beautiful beach, marina and no bike shops. There is a cute little ferry to go across the harbour and river to land in Hondarribia, Spain. No passport formalities, but we did have to unload the bikes to lift them on board. We think of ourselves as seasoned, world travellers so were surprised at how suddenly lost we felt in Spain where I can't say much more than "Dos cerveza per favor". Google maps led us to a small shop that looked like they actually fix bicycles as I could see some old bikes in various states of repair crammed inside. After waiting 20 minutes until 4:30 opening (a longer lunch siesta in Spain) my first surprise was that the shopkeeper spoke no French at all and only a few words of English - don't all Europeans speak 3 or 4 languages? I managed to convey our need of a spoke and he came out to inspect Ann's bike. My second surprise was when he shook his head saying "complicate - una semaine" which I think meant next week. Not willing to give up, I asked if he could sell me the spoke and I would do the repair myself. He looked reluctant but then went into the back and found an old spoke from another wheel. How could it be so hard to buy a spoke? With so many people riding bikes, surely they must break a spoke now and then. In the end he sold me a used spoke for 1Euro and lent me the tool to remove the cassette, so an hour later with greasy hands the wheel was ready to ride, more or less true and fully spoked. I thanked him for his help, but had to question his entrepreneurial initiative when he could have charged me an express repair premium seeing my predicament.

In the meantime, Ann had found a grocery store so we pedalled just out of town to the campsite and settled into our first night in Spain, with the bikes ready for the big climb tomorrow.

Rolling hills and golf courses south of Biarritz.

Up over the headland and down to the beach, over and over again.

This dad and kids were also doing their own repair.

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 1,155 km (717 miles)

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