My little piece of the Tour de France

Day 14 Monday 10th May
Escot to Bilheres-en-Ossau 13 miles
I had a little tour of the restored rooms at the chateau before I left
this morning(I'd been staying in the "cheap"
part so far largely untouched). Corinne and Ricardo are making a
beautiful job
of it but my goodness what a project.
Today's stage was planned to be quite long with a fair amount of
ascent. I changed the route a bit to stick to roads as i'd been told
the path could be a bit tricky to follow. So I struck out along a
stage of the tour de France. It was a bit daunting to see the sign at
the bottom warning of the ascent and the steep gradients.
The first 5 km of the road is being resurfaced in readiness for the T
deF which meant I was constantly being passed by heavy tricks full of
tarmac and the anticipated pastoral sounds and smells were overpowered
by those of trucks and tar. Half way up, though, that gave way to The
sounds of fast-running streams, woodpeckers and rustling leaves
interrupted by the occasional whoosh of a cyclist as he freewheeled
downhill.
Eventually I made it to the top after 8km and 700m of ascent. The
breeze at the top and the cooling effect of the remains of the snow
were very welcome.
After a fairly gentle but lengthy descent of about 400m I was glad to
arrive here - the Gite Auberge de la Chemin Perchade in Bilheres.
Although road walking is easier in some ways, it's much harder on the
feet. The chance for a shower and to put the feet up came none too
soon. And then a really good meal in the company of a group
from a school for shepherds and a French television crew who are
filming around here. Now I'm definitely ready to crash out.