Sunday August 24, 2014

Last night I heard an owl, this morning I was woken up by two cockerels competing in the loudest crowing competition.  This is the first time in France that I have been woken up by birds. I have heard the occasional mourning dove but not birdsong like we experienced in NZ, Australia and England.  Are the French eating all their song birds?

It was very chilly this morning – below 10 degrees.  The tent was wet from the morning dew and the sun although above the horizon did not dry the tent.  However, the day warmed up considerably as we headed south to Biarritz and reached a high of 31 degrees.  Warm day for cycling and we were into hills.  We are in the foothills of the Pyreneans.

We had our lunch in CapBreton, it had a Sunday street market, and the first stall we came across had a wonderful assortment of sandwiches.  Our loaded touring bikes always garner a lot of attention and we try and answer any questions people throw at us.  We always get a Bon courage or a Bon journee.

We switched back and forth from the cycle route to the road today.  The road was busy but most car drivers gave us enough room, except the British, sorry guys but you really are appalling drivers.

We cycled into Biarritz and saw the Tourisme office then circled the road three times to try and get to the parking lot where the office was.  The YH didn’t open until 5:00 (it was 2:30) and the campsite in Town was full.  We decided to cycle to the campsite as we have found that they often have a couple of sites available for cyclists.

The campsite did have their “emergency” sites available.  The price depended on how many other “cyclists” turned up.  If we were on our own on the site we would pay the full price of E36, if others showed up the price would be cheaper!  After dinner we found a couple of motor bikers on the site – the price has just gone down.  They are two German motor cyclists touring for two weeks.  They have just come over the Pyreneans and said it was beautiful.

We decided to have dinner in the restaurant tonight – it was reasonably priced, but the service was appalling.  We had to wait until after the “Meet and Greet” for the weekly campers was over.  We joined them and had a few free Sangrias and snacks, before we then went back to the restaurant and eventually got served.

Tomorrow is our rest day in Biarritz and then onto Spain!