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Col du Pourtalet This mountain pass has only been crossed by Le Tour de France once so it is not as well known as some of the other mountain passes. The climb starts just south of Laruns and continues virtually non-stop for the next 29km. The gradients do not get above 9% but it is the...

Next we were heading to Jaca on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees and there are basically two mountain passes that could be considered: the Col de Bessata and the Col du Pourtalet. The Bessata route goes from Pau via Oloron-Sainte-Marie and Canfranc and is the route that the railway line used...

Not far from Laruns is the Petit Train d'Artouste which claims to be Europe's highest narrow-guage train. It only runs from around May 8 to October 6 and I didn't know of its existance until after it had stopped running for this year. Looks like a fun day out. More info here: (Home - Été)...

Laruns Laruns is a small town of around 1,200 inhabitants in the Ossau Valley about 40km south of Pau. Most of you would have guessed that I'm running about a month behind with this trip report (as I have with most of my trip reports). We happened to drive into Laruns when there was a local...

Lac de Bious-Artigues About 30 km south of the turn-off to the Col de Marie-Blanque is the Lac de Bious-Artigues. It a very pretty spot and there are lots of hiking trails in and around the lake including the GR10 which goes from the Atlantic at Hendaye on the Bay of Biscay to Banyuls-sur-Mer...

There's no set rule AFAIK and I have cancelled Award flights with a similar small change but it would look better if the change was something more significant. OTOH, it probably doesn't matter. I guess it depends on how long before the first flight on your itinerary and the chances of another...

Fans of Le Tour de France may be familiar with the Col de Marie Blanque as it has been crossed 15 times since the 1978 tour. It links the valleys of the Apse and Ossau Rivers. We took a drive up and over the Col and enjoyed some beautiful scenery along the way. We stopped at this...

Back in the day most visitors would have arrived by train (and many still do) so a finniculaire was built from the railway station in the valley up to the boulevard. You can now ride it for free: More photos from Pau...

Pau Pau is a very pleasant city of approximately 77,000 people around 80km by road from the border with Spain. One of the town's features is the Boulevard des Pyrénées. As there are no buildings on the southern side of the boulevard, it provides a panoramic view of the Pyrenees mountains...

Les Pyrénées

We would have liked to stay an extra night in Saint-Gence but alas, it was already booked for the next few nights, so we continued our journey south. We booked four nights in Sendets, a small village about 20 minutes drive east of Pau. Our accommodation was in another airBnB which had a...

Are there any redemption offers under the new program other than "stays". I can't see any when logged into my account. For example, I used to be able to redeem for a free drink when I had points expiring but not enough for a free night.

Our accommodation in Auxerre was in a renovated stone house about 500 metres from the centre of the old town. It was very nicely done but unfortunately I forgot to take photos. The only doownside was that the central heating was set to 20 degrees and there was no way to turn it up. As the...

It seems to me that every French town with more than a few hundred residents (either now or in the past) has to have a cathedral and Auxerre is no exception...

Yes; from Wikipedia: Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe. ...an interesting mix.

Auxerre Auxerre is the capital of the Yonne department and has a population of 35,000 although the larger surrounding urban area accounts for around 113,000. The old town quite pretty... The clock in the above photos dates from 1484. The clock’s distinctive features are the two...

Well, I made it back to Chatillon, picked up the car and headed for Auxerre. About half way there I received a call from my shipmates to advise that the train had been cancelled, there were no taxis or Ubers and they were stranded in another small village where everything was permanently...

That night we were treated to a spectacular sunset... Next morning and the problem is that there is absolutely no public transport to or from this village. Fortunately, I had managed to arrange a lift from here back to Chatillon-en-Bazois where we had left our car and my man...

Mailly-le-Chateau We are due to hand back our boat at Mailly-le-Chateau which had a population in 2021 of 531 although looking at the village it would appear that there was a time when the population was very much higher: This is another village that has hit hard times as farming has become...

We enjoyed our time in Clamecy, partly because we had the best weather of our trip and partly because being in the centre of twon we had access to shops, cafes, etc. I was able to walk to the boulangerie for fresh croissants for breakfast, something I had missed for the first 4 days of our...