The last few days: Tourmalet, Chartres and Paris - by Roy

As Dale and Gwen have already documented, the last few days have been spectacular. Flexibility of planning has been the hallmark of this trip, and our willingness to change our plans on a daily basis has enriched our experiences in many ways.
It was a bit of a "no-brainer" for us to spend one day only in Pau and to return to Les Terraces for an additional two days, even though it meant driving west for 100 miles, and then back 100 miles to the East. Toll roads cost money in this country, but they do save a lot of time, especially since France seems to have discovered a fascination for constructing roundabouts every mile or so on non-motorway roads. So we zipped back to the middle of the Pyrenees and met Vincent of Les Terraces again. On Friday, Dale and I, faced with a cloudy and chilly day, drove up to the Col d'Aspin, and found ourselves surrounded with low cloud and fog, and we returned to our lodgings for a quiet day.
Dale can read me pretty well, and his blog captures accurately my ambivalence about the Col de Tourmalet. I wanted to do it - badly, but I didn't want to try to do it and fail, not so much because it would be my failure, but more because it might prevent Dale from doing it. You should realize that our experience with Col d'Aspin had shown how desolate the hill was - no people, no houses and just bare mountain, and you can imagine people getting into real trouble on the mountain. And we believed that the Tourmalet was just as bad, so a change in weather could be tricky.
However, what I had misjudged, I think, was the extent to which the earlier HC and category 1 rides had strengthened our legs. So, on Saturday, after our morning at the farmers' market, all four of us set out for the Tourmalet. As we drove over the Col d'Aspin, the sun broke through the clouds, which quickly were whisked away. We arranged for Gwen and Fran to meet us at the top of this 20 km climb with average grade of 9% or so, and started climbing. And we found that there were lots of cyclists climbing with us - most of them climbed faster than us, but then I think most were a few years or decades younger than us. Absolutely amazing feeling when I realized a couple of km into the ride that we were perfectly capable of doing the climb without walking any part of it, and when we reached the top, I was on top of the world. I quickly decided that I would let Dale go off and do his crazed descent on his own - he had given up the chance on the previous HC descent to escort me with my bad tire, and he needed at least one chance to let it rip. So I rode down the other side with Gwen and Fran, marveling at the scenery - stark, steep, and menacing, so much more so than the Alps, which seem softer even if higher. Tough people live in the Pyrenees. (And as I rode down, I said a little "thank you" to Kirk, my mechanic from Performance Bikes in Tysons Corner for having prepped my bike so well that the machine was able to handle the stress and strain of the climb -and the cumulative stresses of the previous legs - thanks again, Kirk, you have some work to do when I get back.)
So, a wonderful climax to the trip in terms of cycling - to have had the chance to do the Tourmalet is wonderful, and all thanks to Dale for organizing it and including me.
So, on to Bordeaux, where we stayed in a modern hotel carved out of a warehouse and located steps away from the most impressive urban rail system I've yet seen. It ferried us down to the waterfront, where we had a good meal, and lamented the fact that we couldn't stay for more days. But Bordeaux is a place to re-visit, especially since it would put us close to the Pyrenees again.
And so to Chartres. 250 miles north, along an excellent toll road (no roundabouts again!!!), and some sensation as to how many miles we had come since Amsterdam. France is a big place. Dale and Gwen have captured the beauty and magnificence of Chartres in ways that my words can't, and I won't try, except to say that walking around its old, beautifully preserved buildings reminded me of Gormenghast, the fictional capital of a mysterious world created by Mervyn Peake in the 1950s in his Titus Groan trilogy - a world apart, a world that has kept its identity as others change theirs, and a sense of awesomeness and scale that reduces the size of the individual while making you feel part of a bigger and transcendent universe. As Dale has said, we have had the priceless opportunity to see two epitomes of France on this trip - Chartres and Sisentrom.
And today, back on the bikes for the ride across Paris, from the south-west to the north-east. A lovely ride through suburban and periurban Paris, until we descended into the city, at which point the bucolic met the frantic. More driver idiots in 20 miles than we had encountered in the whole of the rest of the trip, and we carefully ploughed our way through the urban traffic on our way to the Hotel Le Celtic. Actually, Paris has the makings of a bike-friendly city, for cyclists have the opportunity to share the wide bus lanes, but somehow the city has not quite integrated all the good bits into a system, and the bad bits are pretty bad. But, how can you pass up a chance to cycle across one of the great cities of the world?
Tomorrow, a day in the center of Paris, and then to Brugge and finally to Amsterdam. Lots more fun to be had.