Paris to Bilbao, Days 1-11

September 5, 2024 to September 15, 2024

Another rave about cycling the Spanish Pyrenees and an ode to Team Anderson who paved the way that many of us have followed. After reading their Bilbao to Sete journal, I have been busting to do this. Lyle & Kirstens ‘Gorging & Basquing’ journal last year made me even more excited about the idea.

What follows is an abridged version of our tour. Robyn Richards, another great 'journalist' has been encouraging me to do a post trip journal for the last couple of years. 'Just do pictures and captions, with minimal writing'. Ok Robyn, here goes. I have contemplated doing a journal before, but felt a bit defeated about the time and effort it would take, the small number of photos taken, putting myself out there, and whether it would really be interesting enough compared to all the outstanding writing that is happening here. But it would certainly be great to have as a personal keepsake. Bruce & I consider it a game challenging each other's memory about details of previous trips which can take a lot of prompts and tortured head wracking. A fun pastime over a glass of wine.

And I do wish to create some sort of presence here, instead of feeling like a voyeur and a random person that leaves comments every now and then. It’s been strange forming one way attachments to people who have become so familiar, whom I hold in great admiration and think about often sharing the highs, lows, lost items, health issues, train stories ... There are so many really great journals and I am beyond grateful for the pleasure I’ve had in following, of being able to live vicariously in the desert between tours, the inspiration for places to visit, the inspiration to think we might be able to do this for more years than I thought possible, and the access to an abundant amount of practical information. Such a fantastic resource. I would be bereft without a Team Anderson report that’s been a part of my everyday routine for the past 5 years. What an inspiration they have been … as others have become.

It was on researching our first tour to both Puglia and Andalusia in 2019 that I stumbled upon a video posted by TA. This of course led to the discovery of CycleBlaze which ignited dreams and plans. Following Covid and rehab from a broken shoulder we embarked on a month long trip to France starting in Lyon (thanks again TA), heading to Annecy and the ViaRhona, dropping into the Ardeche gorge and ending in Arles where we caught a train back to Lyon. And so began the obsession.

Last year much research was done about buying E-Bikes and where to store them in Europe (very grateful to Trish Graham and the Grampies who had written much about this). In September we flew to Frankfurt to pick up the purchased bikes and spent a month cycling to the pre-arranged storage in Paris via Germany & Belgium.

On posting enquiries about bike storage, a kind offer was made by complete strangers, Ian and Clare, who have now become friends. They are both cyclists themselves, and own an old farmhouse (Vexintrex) just outside Paris. Even more convenient they have self contained gites on the property that they can rent out. Perfect for getting organised at the beginning and end of tours. It's such a great place and they are such lovely people that I want to give them a plug after all their generosity. We have encouraged Ian to offer his services to more bike tourers as this is a resource I’m sure many are looking for.

Vexintrex where we keep our bikes stored. The Grampies have been here too.

Thursday & Friday, September 5th & 6th

Paris & Boubiers

To this year’s tour of the Pyrenees. I spent a lot of time planning this one and returned time and again to my Komoot maps staring anxiously at the profiles and wondering if we and our bike batteries were up to it. Watching Tour de France this year my husband commented “we’re not climbing mountains like that are we”?! … “Umm… yes”

So off we went with no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but excited for the adventure. I gulped a little when we arrived in San Sebastian and could see them looming large (very large) in the distance.

It’s a long way from Auckland to Paris in economy class. I’m so envious of those of you who can do a short hop and skip across the Atlantic to get to Europe. Our 36 hour journey involved a 12 hour layover in Guangzhou. But how lucky to be able to do this. I'm forever grateful. And particularly grateful as we nearly had to cancel this trip only weeks earlier.

It was a very damp greeting from Paris on arrival. A day to recover, rejoice at having arrived, ooh and ahh all over again at everything that Paris is, then onto a commuter train to Boubiers, an hour away to retrieve our bikes and say hello to Ian and Clare.

The barn where our bikes have been well looked after for the past 12 months. Overjoyed to be reunited with them again.

Ian saw us off as we wobbled out of his gate to the local train station. It’s an adjustment to get used to the weight of the panniers. It's taken me by surprise every time we have set off on a new tour.

I had a number of trains planned for this trip which was a little scary given all the train stories that abound in these journals. Previously we had had only one train experience from Arles to Lyon which had been fine as we had done a reconnaissance of the train station the day before and knew that the bike carriage was at the front.

Saturday, September 7th

Martel

First train challenge of the day, the local train into Paris. A roll on, roll off situation which would have been fine except my bike wasn’t secured well enough and crashed to the ground. First lesson. Yikes. But no damage. Arriving at Saint Lazare (thankfully lifts) and cycling to Austerlitz was kind of crazy but we followed the lead of other cyclists weaving our way between buses and cars. Next train challenge the Intercité to Souillac. A few things we learnt about trains this time; we can relax if we're boarding at point of origin; a reconnaissance of the station beforehand to check out problems like stairs; and getting to the station early. We had plenty of time to board the Intercité though it was tricky manoeuvring to get the bikes up the narrow stairs, round the corner into the sliding door and onto the high hooks, but the one other cyclist was on hand to help. We arrived at Souillac station in the late afternoon feeling ecstatic to have accomplished the trains without drama, and to be finally actually on our bikes and on our way. We delighted in the beautiful countryside on the short 15km ride to Martel and loved that our first stop was such a picturesque village with it’s little cobblestone streets and central square. Still feeling discombombulated from the flights and having to keep pinching ourselves that we've here, after dreaming about it for so long.

Standing in line in Martel waiting for our baguette and morning pastry treat.

Sunday, September 8th

Rocamadour

Excited to be setting off for Rocamadour the next day under cloudy skies. Lots of journals about this area and whilst we couldn't spend the time it deserves down here we were keen to get just a taste of it on this trip. Approaching from above was as remarkable as others have said. Rain settled in just after we checked into our hotel. There were perhaps too many tourists and tour buses for our liking so overnight somewhere else might have been good.

A wander in the town below. It's a long way down! We were standing at the top watching people come up the stairs looking like they were about to have a heart attack.

Monday, September 9th

Sarlat La Canéda

From there we set off to Sarlat La Canéda under dark skies. We were loving the moody atmosphere and low light that seemed to enhance the landscape we were cycling in. It's definitely on the cards to return to this area, there seems like so much to explore. We were surprised by a wild boar dashing out onto the road in front of us and scuttling into the forest (thankfully). We managed to stay dry, again arriving at our hotel just as the skies opened up. It cleared in the evening enabling a good look at the well preserved medieval centre. The bars and restaurants were buzzing with people.

Tuesday, September 10th

Saint-Émilion

Sarlat to Saint-Émilion and assisted by another easy train ride for part of the way. We're really having to condense this part of the trip unfortunately. The sun was out and perfect timing for the ride through the vineyards.

Waiting for our host to arrive outside the B&B in St Emillion.

Saint-Émilion in the evening. So lovely after the hoardes of people and tour buses have left.

Wednesday, September 11th

Bordeaux

It was a wet evening in Bordeaux, so not much exploring to be done. In the morning our next train challenge was from Bordeaux to Hendaye. Thanks to Susan Carpenter who kindly gave me lots of great train advice. She suggested to take the TER rather than the OuiGo which was perfect. The easiest roll on roll off and no hooks!

Thursday, September 12th

Pasai San Juan

Spain! Excited to be arriving in another country! From Hendaye we cycled to a place called Pasai San Juan, a little old fishing village on the seafront just short of San Sebastián main town. We were glad to turn off the main road from Hendaye to San Sebastián, whilst it had a shoulder, it was a main thoroughfare for a continuous stream of buses, trucks and cars.

What a delight, staying in a hotel called Donibanea with rooms overlooking the harbour and that evening dining in a fabulous fish restaurant that’s been in the family since 1884, also overlooking the little port.

Friday, September 13th

San Sebastián

The next day the easiest way to get across to San Sebastián was to take the little ferry that crosses the harbour and from there a short 10km to San Sebastián on small neighbourhood roads. The ferry is a very small boat which we were unsure that the bikes would fit on, but we were ushered on and somehow managed to get them aboard. What fun.

The little port village of Pasai San Juan

Waiting for the ferry to arrive that will take us to the other side. Questioning whether we could get our bikes into the tiny boat.

We did! They were tossed into the front with barely enough room for Bruce.

Made it to the other side and relieved not to have to navigate the main road again to San Sebastián.

Wow, what a stunning town! And the beachfront is gorgeous. I can understand now why everyone raves about it.

Couldn't get enough of the Pinxtos bars. Delicious! And I'm salivating remembering the Burnt Basque Cheesecake that is a specialty of San Sebastián. There was a long queue waiting to get a slice at La Viña bar, the original place. Tins and tins of cheesecakes lined every shelf behind the bar and a there was a continuous stream of them reappearing from the kitchen.

Saturday & Sunday, September 14th & 15th

Bilbao

Inspired by Kyle & Kirsten, we caught a bus to Bilbao for the weekend, stashing the bikes in the hotel we were staying in San Sebastián.

It's been a long held ambition to see the Guggenheim. It exceeded expectations

And an interesting little art gallery down the road that had a couple of Goya's we wanted to see.

Such a sense of community with family and friends gathering for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. Every bar/restaurant in town was packed.

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Steve Miller/GrampiesSo glad you are posting your trip. Maybe next time you will take the plunge and post in real time. An abbreviated real time journal padded out after the trip is ended might be a reasonable compromise?
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1 month ago

Robyn RichardsTo Carolyn, you've nailed it - great start to your journal! And it's good to put a face to your name too. As much as I love writing for an audience, I agree the biggest benefit of writing a journal is to bring pleasure and memories to Future Me.
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1 month ago

Carolyn van HoeveTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThanks Steve and so glad you made it to Valencia unscathed. It was alarming to read the reports on the news and then realising that's exactly where you were. You two are unbelievably hardy!
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1 month ago

Carolyn van HoeveTo Robyn RichardsThanks Robyn for the encouragement! It was actually fun writing it up and reliving the trip all over again. Amazing how many small details are forgotten in such a short space of time.
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1 month ago

Lyle McLeodI'm just echoing Steve and Robyn's comments. Great to see your journal and trip here. Although it's territory we went through recently, it's always refreshing, and feels like something new, to see it through someone else's eyes and experience.
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1 month ago