Neither of us is any rush to move until the sun starts to push the shadows down the mountain sides. It's nearly 11:00 when we finally set off, stopping after only a few hundred yards to enjoy the view of the sparkling river. We stop again in St Pe de Bigorre, it's a typical, sleepy little French town which has one of everything you need. Ali visits the TO for information on the area, and the boulangerie to get freshly made ham sandwiches. Meanwhile Nick gets ...

We are woken by the clangers who have shuffled up here again for their breakfast. The cooler nights at altitude are enough to make us put the heater on for ten minutes before we get up. A convoy of 8 MoHo's streams by as we have our muesli [sadly not served by a busty mountain milkmaid like it is on the TV advert]. When we go down to the village to dump rubbish they are all parked in line, apparently on an organised group tour. We use the mountain spring hose...

No hurry to stir ourselves this morning. Over breakfast we watch as other vans get ready to leave. Just up the road is a pay-to-use service point, but beside the aire mountain water cascades off a concrete avalanche shelter and a hosepipe has been rigged inside the flow. So after emptying for free on the service drains they take on fresh mountain spring water at no charge. Late morning it's sunny and the mountains have lost their misty helmets, revealing many...

Apart from a couple of nuts falling off the tree onto the roof it was a silent night, but like many French villages, Arette turns off the church bells at night and come 07:30 the tower chimes out forty-three o'clock to catch up. It's bright and sunny as we set off, immediately climbing out of the town and passing pasture land leading away to the mountains. We stop in Issor, a little village with the church square looking over the valley. The elegant, blue-shut...

Mist hangs over the peaks first thing but gradually lifts as we get up. When we leave the owner teaches us Basque for goodbye, which sounds like 'agur-shaktay'. It's a pretty, green drive to St Jean Pied du Port, which we planned to visit today. Driving through, we can see it's an attractive market town with a fort, red and white houses, flowers and a river. but traffic is busy and the pavements which haven't got cars parked on them are rough and cambered so ...