Dax to Sare

October 5, 2024

I wake up to a gorgeous, cool, sunny day. These roads are butter, and I quickly hop onto a riverside path. Pushing the pedals feels so easy on a day like today.

There's a noticeable zippiness in feel now that my tires are back up to pressure (75psi front, 80psi rear).

I see this neat home off the cycle path. They've got a nice parcel of land, and quite the setback. I like that half the home is like a glass hall (for entertaining? a solarium?), and the other half more traditional looking. It looked very new. And half the roof is solar panels.

Then the road turns into a hill with a huge structure on the hillside. A university? A convent? A yoga retreat? Google Maps tells me I'm at the Abbaye de Belloc.

The Abbaye even has accommodations. 27 euros for a single room in such a great location? Unfortunately it's too early in the day to stop, and there's no food nearby, so I keep going.

And so I head to Cambo-les-Bains, where there's a cheesecake festival!

I get a portion of the cheesecake. It's stiffer than the one from a few days ago, and it's stuffed with black cherry. I walk through the entire festival, both sides. There's so much stuff I want to buy, especially the sheep's cheese. I end up getting a bag of thumb-sized raisins as a snack.

Villa Arnaga is here, the home of the author of Cyrano de Bergerac. Unfortunately they just switched to off-season hours, so I miss the last-entry time by half an hour. Bummer! I like visiting regional grand homes because it gives me a sense of the design and lifestyle sensibilities of the time from someone without financial constraints. How do they choose to manage natural light? What was best-in-class when it comes to heating and air circulation? How many toilets do they have? The gardens are supposed to be lovely. Oh well.

These Basque roads though, after Cambo, pay no regard to grade. The punchiness is breathtaking, perhaps relics from the time when you could just coerce your farm animal up the hill, and they just paved over it. A few cars pass me with cheerful toots on the horn. I wave back. Yeah yeah yeah, give me that Type 2 fun.

I get into Sare with time to spare and start the usual routine of washing my bibs before heading out for dinner at the painfully late hour of 8pm. The standout for me was chipirones from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. There's a huge downpour as I finish my dinner, and I run back to the inn. A second shower, and hanging everything up to dry. The town's administration has an interesting sense of humour, because their bell goes off hourly until 1am. Overall, a perfect touring day.

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,448 km (899 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	5
Comment on this entry	Comment	0