To Espelette - You stole my wheels and that's what really hurts - CycleBlaze

June 1, 2024

To Espelette

Familiar ground if I could only remember.

Last night we reviewed our planned route out of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and recognized that it was on the busy  D918 highway. This routing  was from the route Raid Pyrenean Randonneur. It was not exactly what we are looking for, so we reconfigured the plan to pass Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry and then  head onto a small country road (D349) beyond Bidarray.  We had ridden this same route but in the opposite direction last October. Of course, it looked familiar as we rode it but when we mapped it out, much of it  looked new to us.

We had breakfast with Catharine, the hostess at  Maison Simonenia. She was such a delight to be around. She even packaged up a couple of sandwiches for the road and we said good bye - likely for the last time -but you can never say never.

Part of the new Maison LAURENTZENIA. We stayed in the room on the second floor left side.
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A real project in a local garage in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. If you leave your door open, I will probably walk in.
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Similar: TERROT 1930 HST 350 CC 1 CYL SV.
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We are not going that way but we have before!
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Rue d'Espagne in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Walker getting ready to leave town. Day 1 on the Camino Frances from St Jean to Roncesvalles, Spain. It is around 24km and will take 7 to 9 hours if you walk it in one day. It is a tough day.
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Our road to Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry is in the sunshine with the black clouds behind.
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The hillside just before Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry. Really pretty countyside.
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In Biderray: Pont d’Enfer (Hell’s Bridge). Legend has it that when the Devil realized that he could not learn the Basque language, he threw himself off this bridge into the Nive River.
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The hotel du Pont d`Enfer has seen better days. By the looks of the 2nd and 3rd floor windows, it appears to now be at least partly abandoned.
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Scott AndersonIt does look like it’s failing alright. Things looked brighter a decade ago: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/girona2014/saint-jean-de-luz/#3263_1930262_803vo9_image
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6 months ago
Scott FenwickTo Scott AndersonWhat a difference a decade will make. And how time flies - I remember reading that blog. I am thinking that the covid years really took a toll on business that was just on the margins. On this trip we saw a number of hotels, restaurants and stores that looked closed permanently.
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6 months ago
The hotel and bridge in a long ago time.
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Space dog. Love the goggles!
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Yappy dog. So much energy in that second floor window telling us to move along.
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We tried to get a coffee at the Logis hotel beside the highway in Biderray but surprisingly they were not serving coffee on their  outside terrace  at mid day on Saturday. We certainly wondered why. We rode on through the town and up a steep hill to join the  one lane road D349. We began to recognize the road that went up and down through farms on the edge of a hill.  But what we did not remember was how steep the short sharp inclines were. They must have been about 15% grade. We would push our bikes to the top of a hill, get on the bikes and  ride to the next incline to do it all over again. This was getting physically tiring and a bit frustrating. Soon however, this road connected to a wonderful ride along the Nive River known as the Pas de Roland. We had the pleasure of riding this stretch last year and it is a great road to pedal slowly and take in the sights.

I think that these are Pottok, a breed of pony native to the Pyrenees of the Basque Country in France and Spain.It is considered an ancient breed of horse, particularly well adapted to the harsh mountain areas it traditionally inhabits.
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Quite the horns on these beasts!
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Couple of dirty snouted pigs rooting around in the mud at the foot of the tree.
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Our Friday`s waiting patiently as we stopped and had a coffee here.
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Coffee time!
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If you look closely at a Basque house there is so much detail in the construction. They are very well kept and very beautiful homes.
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Love this picture - so Basque.
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A small bridge over the Nive river that flows down to Bayonne and out to the coast.
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Along the route du Pas de Roland.
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Rachael AndersonI love these kind of roads!
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6 months ago
We had ridden this section of road before but it was very worth doing again.
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The Nive River.
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After leaving the Pas de Roland we completed the day in unchartered territory. Our last 10KM to Espelette was a great finish  in rolling hills through farmland. 

Espelette is famous for the peppers grown in the area. This pepper has a long history and is like a chilli pepper but is considered only mildly hot.  The town is a popular tourist area and has many shops full of culinary delights with all things pepper being the highlight. The pepper samples I tried were very good so we picked up a few jars to take home with us.

Many foals at this farm.
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With calves on the other side of the road.
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Loved this guy`s mane.
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Another pretty area to ride before reaching Espelette.
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Those are espelette peppers decoratively attached to the front of the hotel.
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Main street in Espelette. There were a number of people walking about but it did not seem really busy.
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The fromage shop selling big rounds of cheese.
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As well as amazing legs of jambon.
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This cafe / bar was busy though. We had ringside seats to people watch.
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After our traditional Basque dinner (Scott had Ezpeleta and Pat had Peio - as if that helps) we passed this bar that was a having local`s sing along.
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Main street closed and the people have all gone home now. The age and the beauty of Basque architecture is easily seen in Espelette.
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Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 1,020 km (633 miles)

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