Saw a strange cat today. White all over bar a small black spot on its nose and a totally black tail. I stopped to talk to it outside a farm and it turned and ran fast down the road. But it didn't stop until it was out of sight, way way in the distance. Never seen a cat run so fast and so far.
Not seen too many dogs en route. But came across two in a big cage cum compound thing last week, whilst peddling though a forest in Spain. Stopped because they were barking so much. They quietened down when I approached them. One was huge beast, prob some kind of mountain dog. It's mate was a small and very ancient looking terrier. They both looked at me through the chicken wire. Behind them was a pile of about 15 or so French sticks/ baguettes. The big dog turned around, walked over to the bread mound and delivered a long pee all over it, the came back to observe me. With that, the old terrier followed suit and peed all over the bread. I was sorry that I had nothing better to offer them. We only had raisins and chocolate at the time. I spoke to them for a while then we pedalled off. They didn't bother to take up barking again. Waste of effort!
Stayed last night in one of the hotels of the Logis chain. They have hundreds of these two star hotels spread across France. They are clean and comfortable and have more character than those in the Campanile chain. This year a twin room is 57 euros (breakfast extra). I would recommend them. WiFi is included (they pronounce this 'Whiffy').
Went out last night to explore the delights of Vic en Bigorre on a Saturday night. What a ghost town! There were a couple of bars, all empty. A couple of restaurants, also empty and nobody out and about. The only action we heard was the sound of a Hoover coming from an open window. What's it like on a Monday! We did, however find a Vietnamese resto in the high street that did have one table (of three women) going. Busy! We ate there. Some crispy samosas to start (these contained just a very solid lump of mince). Followed by a Thai chicken curry. Quite hot but containing too much fibrous lemon grass. If we lived here we wouldn't really want to eat here again. But I expect we would have to. I wonder what made these Vietnamese choose this one horse town in the back of beyond to open a restaurant? They must be regretting it. But they can see the Pyrenees - if they like that sort of thing.
I'm glad we're just moving through. The countryside here is very pretty. We're going to keep heading east through more Pyreneen foothills: JC reckons she's planned a good route for today. Time will tell. We seem to be making good time and the sun seems to now shine every day. Even though, being high up, it's a bit chilly. Especially for the morning 'roll out'. Highs of around just 21C. But forecast to warm up through the week.
When we'd first ridden into the town we did a quick circuit of the town centre but couldn't see any Hotels. So I asked this French guy who was about my age if there was anywhere to stay. He said there were actually three and described precisely where they where and what they were like. So we set off to look at all of them. Each time we found one and stopped to have a look at the tariff and level of upkeep, up would pop this same Frenchman to offer further advice on each place and give his opinion on which we'd prefer. He was following us around, but trying not to make it look obvious that he was. The local Monsieur Helpful. He was like that "Only me!" Harry Enfield character. I fully expected him to pop up again when we were looking at the menu outside the Vietnamese. "Only me! You don't want to eat there. You want to eat around the corner. That's where you want to eat".
Back to JC's route. She'd spent over an hour working it out. I'd let her get on with it. The good news was that the route took us along very small roads. During the entire day we saw only a handful of cars and about four people! The bad news was that she'd ignored those 'pretty shaded areas' on the map. The areas that anyone half literate with a map would instantly recognise as closely spaced contour lines!
We spent the whole day climbing over an endless number of long hard hills. I think it was a harder route than some of the days in Spain. Very tough. Some of the hills were well over 10% for five or so kilometres. I think I should have put some sun cream on my tongue!
We managed it though. Jackie did very well, to be fair. But her chosen destination was a place called Boulogne sur Glesse, into which we fell at around 4pm. Last night's town looked like a metropolis compared to this tiny, out of the way dump. No hotels in view! Asked a couple of locals who looked at us in amazement. "Hotels? Here!"
There was nowhere around and we'd already cycled 60 miles. And it was still hot. And I was in desperate need of a cool beer.
"But it looked quite big on the map" said she.
Back on the bikes and cycled north east. Took us another 20 miles of hard pedalling before we found a hotel. It's almost 8 pm, and we set off at 9.15am
We're due an easier day tomorrow.
(I've hidden the maps.)