Blog 2: Adventure Travellers in France

Blog #2: Lance Armstrong, Alberto and the French.

From Karl Woolcott, Adventure Travel

We're staying at Hotel Eychenne in Saint-Girons which is situated at the foot of the mighty Pyrenees.

Google Eychenne and it will tell you a fascinating story.

In short the room next to where we are staying is often frequented by Lance Armstrong. It's famous for having a guest book which has a lot of Tour de France winners' signatures. Alberto Contador stayed here and asked if he could sign the book, only to be told that he needed to win the Tour de France first. His signature has now been added - as I suspect Andy Schleck's will be in seven day's time.

For a cyclist, Saint-Girons is about as close to heaven as one could hope for. It also has fantastic fly-fishing so for me personally I could happily retire here. Not to mention the skiing.

I know I keep bleating on about how nice the French are to cyclists but we have cycled every day for well over a week and not once have we heard an angry horn and the only birds we've seen have been in the trees.

Motorists will sit behind you for more than 5mins and then give you a friendly wave. We stop at small towns and locals run out and offer to fill up drink bottles.

Yesterday we had a group stopped by the Tour de France caravan which meant they were unable to get to the coach parked 10km away.

Before they knew it, a French family had them sitting in their lounge and they were being treated like Kings while watching the Tour de France live on TV. They literally only had to get off the couch and walk outside when the race went by. Even the 82 year old Grandfather turned up to have a chat with the small bunch of Kiwis.

Personally, those who say the French are arrogant have not been to France.

The riding the last two days is hard to describe. Yesterday we rode from the Millau Viaduct through to Mende via the Tam Gorge. Yesterday I would have described it as the most scenic ride I've ever done in France. That was until today's ride.

I was in charge of the short cappuccino ride which is really a max of 50kms when hills /mountains are involved. We left the hotel and headed for Siex. Without wanting to sound corny, this place is appropriately named. I won't describe the ride to you. I will simply say, if you are a cyclist then you need to check this area out.

Tomorrow we head for Lourdes, Tourmalet, Soulor and the mighty Aubisque awaits.

Ride safe,

Cheers Karl

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