At first light the hills are still blanketed in mist. With the cool and damp weather we decde not to visit Foix or Mirepoix, but drive to our endpoint near Perpignan. We have to drive through Foix for the service point. It has a large chateau [not accessible] and a busy bustling centre which would be nice on a sunny day. The route out follows the river for a bit then we rejoin the D117 and will stay on that road for the next 80 miles. The scenery along its l...

Dawn takes ages up here among the peaks. From the first sign of a lightening sky to sun up is nearly two hours. The pods of the observatory up on the Pic de Midi de Bigorres behind us shine in the sun. We need fuel so have to go back to Bagneres sur Bigorre, passing through Campan and taking a much closer look at the puppets as we go. In Bagneres there are still diversions all around town and when we get to the supermarket the fuel station is closed while a ...

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...