A hard day on Day 16 so no post on the day. I decided to do a multi-day post instead.
The hero of Day 16 was Ian Fox (pronounced Yan). It sounds like an English name but he is, in fact, Breton. He is the owner of Fox Cycles in Arcachon. I rode up from the town to his shop (about 2 kilometres) for 10:15 am, I knew he opened at 10:00 from the web search. He was very helpful with my tyre problem. He had a new, slightly narrower, Schwalbe Marathon fitted and done within 30 minutes of me arriving. All was good…I paid and thanked him and hit the road. About 1 kilometre down the road I realised that I was riding without a helmet! Back I went, slightly embarrassed, to pick it up…I’d left it in the counter.
Anyway the day was a tough one after that. Lots of hills, more pine forest and rain! Also the wind that hadn’t arrived the day before did it’s best to blow me back to Arcachon!
I eventually arrived at Biscarosse Lake. This is a huge freshwater lake about 20 kilometres from the coast.
Stunning…the sun even came out for a while! I rode on until I arrived at Gastes which is where I had decided to stay for the night. The campsite had a ‘Petite Cabine’ for €30 euros which was the best choice given the weather. It was very Petite but did the trick and kept me dry during a very wet night!
Also there was a restaurant in the campsite. I’m not really one to eat in a restaurant alone but I do need to eat and I’m on my own so there isn’t really a choice! I asked what time it opened and the reply was along the lines of ‘whenever I wanted it to’ which was a worry. So around 6:45 pm I walked down and someone appeared from a different cabin and followed me. When I walked into the empty restaurant he was still behind me and he promptly put a chefs hat and apron on and said ‘bonsoir monsieur’. The only other person to walk in the restaurant all evening was the waiter! It was an awkward hour or so as they looked bored while I ate a burger and had a couple of glasses of wine.
The burger was very good though!
The next day started with warm sunshine after a very wet night. It was a delightfully flat route almost all day and I covered far more kilometres than I had originally intended.
It’s tricky to talk about the actual routes. Since around Rochefort they have been very much the same. Very nice surfaces to ride on (there are a few bumps where the tree roots have raised the tarmac). But just pine forest everywhere! I’ve seen that some other people have commented on this in other blogs. There is little else here. The section today from Mimizan to Leon was nearly 50 kilometres. It almost entirely consisted of pine forest trails. I don’t think I saw another person for the whole stage!
One highlight was seeing a lighthouse in a pine forest…yes you read it right!
I pushed myself to make 105 kilometres today eventually arriving in Capbreton around 6:00 pm. Long day but a good ride in better weather! This means the last 2 days can be a bit shorter. A bientot!
