The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2024 - Ares to St. Paul-en-Born

Day #

State of Legs

:-)

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	71.9 miles	km	1329 feet	metres	1
Trip Totals	876.9 miles	km	20047 feet	metres	1

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

We set off on our bikes with "second breakfast" on our minds. We were soon in the town of Andernos-les-Bains and headed for the nearest boulangerie. Around the corner, in the town square we stood by our bikes to enjoy our coffees and various pastries. Within an instant were were joined by an intrepid pigeon and a mob of cheeky sparrows, one of which landed on The Mule's handlebars. Crumbs were dropped, both accidentally and deliberately and were greedily gobbled up, so their audacity paid off.

Much of the next part of the day involved cycling on separate paths by relatively busy roads and through what felt like the suburbs (although there was no nearby city as such). It was still good cycling, this being France.

By mid-day our route had swung west and reached the coast again and we stopped and parked so that we could walk the remaining way and see Europe's highest sand dune, Dune du Pilat. We'd read a bit about the dune when researching this trip and made a note to make sure we visited it. And that is one mountainous sand dune! Estimates as to its height vary. In fact, judging by the amount of sand we emptied from our shoes later on, it's actual height must vary!

To reach the top of the dune, you climb stairs. There were lots of other tourists on the way up and at the top. A good few seemed to be struggling with the steps and were forced to pause partway up and catch their breath. Not your intrepid bikepackers M1 and M2 of course!

At the top, you're treated to a view of the sea with large sand banks in it and of what looks remarkably like jungle looking the other way over the land. It was worth the trudge from the parking area to the top.

We set off again and soon found ourselves cycling through slightly hilly woodland. When the woodland ended, we emerged by a large lake adjacent to the town of Biscarrosse. The shore of the lake was lovely and in the photos, you could almost imagine we were on an island in the South Pacific!

In the town of Biscarosse itself we stopped at a patisserie and bought lunch. M2 opted for a cheese-based quiche and M1 had a large tuna, egg and salad bread roll. Both had delicious, filling slices of raspberry crumble for dessert. I always thought "crumbles" were an English thing but the French have definitely perfected the Art of the Crumble.

We'd found it difficult to find a place to camp that was near the route this time. So we'd ended up both having to cycle further than we would normally plan to and having to detour a good 10 miles from the route to get to the campsite. Nearly 72 miles on our heavy bikes (have I mentioned our bikes are rather heavy?) is quite a distance, believe me.

Our detour was largely on the D46 which is a fast road that carries a good number of trucks as well as cars. But it's also straight as an arrow and fast to ride (even by our standards). And happily, it's wide enough for vehicles to pass with space to spare and the drivers were without exception careful and considerate of us. So, no bad things arose and M2 took the lead and set a fine pace with M1 on her wheel. It was quite a performance from M2 after such a long ride that day.

We stopped in Saint-Paul-en-Born intending to buy groceries from the small store we'd identified on the map but found that it was closed.

The local bar and hotel was open so we sat down there and had cold drinks and a chat with a local man about politics (a general election had just been called by President Macron). He knew more about British politics than we did about French politics!

After refreshments, we rode the final mile up the road to today's campsite which we liked very much. Reception was staffed when we rolled in (not always the way), the owner who was behind the desk spoke fantastic English, having apparently lived in the Netherlands for seven years and we got a genuinely warm welcome. The facilities were clean and functional and the bar served pizza as well as drinks. We put the tent up and showered and then went to the bar to sit, read and eat pizza. It was lucky the bar had food on offer given the store in the village was closed. We weren't super hungry after the filling lunch we'd had only a couple of hours ago but hunger has a habit of catching you by surprise after a day's cycling (on heavy bikes etc etc).

The weather was awesome all day and the way the landscape kept changing made for an excellent, if a little long day of cycling. Job done.

Photos!