2023 short cycle tour in southwest France and Catalunya (Spain)

I have been staying in the southwest of France and seeing an ideal weather forecast for the next few days decided to head east then south and cycle in the Pyrenees in Catalunya (Spain). I headed from here, Latoue, near St. Gaudens to Foix in the department of Ariege via St. Girons. 20 kms. of rolling hills leading to the Garonne valley and a very pleasant cycle path continuing up the Salat river another 15 kilometers or so to St. Girons.

A great discovery was the “voie verte” which is a 44 kilometer path along a disused rail line, a real treat for a cyclist not interested in fast roads. Not a car in sight

Day 2

This was going to be a big day from Foix to Andorra. The plan changed after an unexpected meeting with Matthieu who started chatting with me when he saw me having a sandwich near Ax les Thermes just before the massive climb. He does the kind of cycling I do and advised me to go over the col de Puymurens instead of Andorra especially to avoid the hideous traffic on the Andorra route. He also very kindly offered to take me and my bicycle in his SUV part way up to Hospitalet. I really appreciated that when I saw the heavy traffic and the limited dangerous space offered to the many cyclists.
     

      From there it was still a tough climb up and up and after about 45 minutes was the intersection where one road goes to Andorra and the other to the much more tranquil road going to the Col de Puymurens. I was then in Spain, more specifically Catalunya. Down and down to the small city of Puigcerdà that looked big enough to have a hotel. It did, Hotel du Lac, very nice at 90 euros a night. 

Day 3

My third day was going west through the Pyrenees in Spain without a particular destination. Very pleasant cycling on mostly very small country roads led to La Seu d”Urgell, a fairly big town on the direct road down from Andorra.  Soon after, at about 11 a.m. from a busy highway I took a right turn on to a quiet ascending road. The signboard said Castellbò 10 Kms. but my cycle touring app told me to turn left to take a different road.  

I was still in a trusting spirit with the cycle specific app (maps.me) and took a virtually deserted road up and up. Eventually it turned into a dirt road and I was considering retracing my journey back down. All that work for nothing? Nothing doing…soldier on.

Maybe under other circumstances I would have enjoyed that dirt road downhill, but not today- too tired. I was happy to arrive at Castellbo, a small town that I luckily had a single hotel, and at 30 euros a night a bargain. This part of Spain it can feel quite remote and it can be quite a distance between towns. If I had had to continue onward on this day trying to find accommodation  I realized the next day that I would have been in trouble. As it was…

Day 4

The road from Castellbo was beautiful and almost no traffic. I didn’t know how far I would get on this day but certainly thought it would be farther than it turned out. The road went up and up. How far could it go?  At a fork in the road I very confidently followed the route advised by maps.me (for cyclists) eventually arriving at a place called Sant Joan de l”erm.  Here there was a water fountain and a car park. The road had ended. It was a spot from where hikers could go in different directions, and some 4 wheel drive vehicles along the way- seemed to be mushroom hunters.  I then realized why there was no traffic on the road up.
     

       Again, like yesterday I was not happy to be on a rough dirt track, but was also not going to let all that climbing go to waste with a return from whence I came. This was all forest, probably part of a national forest reserve and after the few mushroom collectors there was no one. Sometimes that kind of forest quiet can be wonderful, but in this case I would rather have not been there.  Going downhill on this kind of track is really tough and exhausting. My rather useless and unreliable app, maps.me was my only guide on getting down to a road and I had to disregard its advice at a fork in the road when it advised me on the uphill fork. My instinct proved right and I eventually got to a road.  Just to be on a tarmac road was pure joy and this was a fun descent, again with no traffic at all. It came to the valley eventually and the highway with about 10 kms.To Llavorsí. Had I inadvertently taken a “shortcut”? I don’t know but I will not trust maps.me in the future. I checked in to the first hotel I saw (at around 90 euros a night. As usual I was in bed early.

Day 5

     This was going to be a big day crossing a big col to get back to France. Most of the big cols in the Pyrenees are part of the long ridge between France and Spain from the Atlantic to the Mediterranian Sea. There is one geographic anomaly,  the Val d’Aran, the upper Garonne valley that is a sort of finger that goes into what should geographically be a part of France. Vielha is the Spanish town across either of the 2 cols and I intended to cross the Col de Bonaigue which passes the most famous ski resort in Spain where I have myself skied many years ago, Baquera.  It was long and tough, not the toughest col I have done, but then I am older too.  

     There were quite a few other cyclists (all passing me of course) and very many motorcycle groups out enjoying a beautiful sunny day.  Down and down the other side and I arrived at Vielha at around 1 p.m.  Mountains over it was just a nice highway following the Garonne river to St. Beat and France. I realized that now I would easily make it back home to Latoue before dark and decided to take the cycle paths available, very nice but not the fastest way to cycle.