Into France and on to Castels…

The homes in Andorra are built up on steep slopes and many have a "Stone Cottage" theme...

The winding road up out of Andorra and into the mountains... Riding one-handed was not a good idea...

The road out of Andorra was a bit of a tester so early in the morning… It wound its way out of the capital towards the French border, twisting and turning through the little villages that line the exit route out of this small and mountainous country… We climbed through Encamp, then L’Aldosa and on to Soldeu, where I was faced with the choice of either going through a long tunnel cut straight through the mountains, or taking the “scenic route” up and over the mountains… Traffic was surprising heavy, with trucks and camper vans heading out of Andorra and into France… Most of them were taking the short cut through the tunnel, so I decided to avoid the rush and go up over the mountain…

The French border and a dramatic change in the weather was waiting in the valley below...

The French border post was shrouded in thick mist...

What a ride…!! The road climbed very steeply, through a long series of hairpin bends, through the most amazing scenery… There were very few places to stop and enjoy the views below me, and trying to take photos while negotiating the sudden sharp corners, proved a little on the dangerous side… It was difficult enough when I had both hands on the handlebars, but with my left one holding the camera, my right hand eventually sent an urgent  “I need a little help here!” message to my brain…

Out of the mountains and into the flats on the way to Foix and beyond...

The weather was clear and sunny on the Andorran side of the border, but as I climbed up and out of the ski resort of Pas de la Casa, close to the French border, a dramatic change in the conditions took place… A thick mist covered the entire valley that I descended into… The French Customs post was just a few shadows in the mist, and the road beyond it was a scary series of wet and slippery hairpin bends… All the way to the village of Merens les Vals, I struggled to keep the Big Fella from sliding out from under me… Despite the much colder conditions, I was drenched in sweat by the time the road straightened out on its way to Lassur…

Driving rain outside Toulouse made things a little difficult...

The cold and misty weather was such a big change from the sunny conditions I had experienced in Spain, and with only a t-shirt under my jacket, I was ill-prepared for the drop in temperature. The road followed the L’Ariege River, switching from one bank to the other, as it ran through the mountains… Then it started to drizzle, and a few kilometres outside Foix, the rain came down in earnest… I pulled over to put my rain gear on, but by the time I found a place to stop, I was already wet…

I rode on through the rain until it became too heavy to see properly, and I pulled over on the northern outskirts to Toulouse, and called Khalid in Castels to tell him that I was stopping to wait for a break in the weather… It was great to hear his voice again, and I was looking forward to being re-united with my friends who had made Egypt bearable while we waited for our vehicles which were delayed in Sudan…

Under a bus shelter north of Toulouse, the Gypsy Biker is forced to don his rain gear...

Caves and Grottos are a huge tourist attraction in this part of France... You could spend weeks taking in all the ancient history of this area...

The Pyrenees Mountains are dotted with caves and grottoes in which rock painting and evidence of human habitation extending back thousands of years can be found… All along the route are huge signs advertising their positions, and most of them are located close to small villages… One of the caves is so large, that you are taken into it by motorboat…!!

We hit the highway, tired of slip-sliding our way around the numerous traffic circles...

After negotiating the 253^rd roundabout for the day, the Big Fella and I decided to leave the country roads we had ridden on since the Andorran border, and head for a motorway, where we could crank up the speed and get this wet ride over as quickly as possible… We headed north towards Limoges, passing through Pompignan and Montauban, before leaving the main road around Cahors, and heading back into the beautiful countryside of southwestern France… Maize and Sunflower fields lined the road, the bright splash of yellow in between the green of the maize and other crops brightened up the day for me…

In Cenac, I had my first experience of an automated filling station...

Gi-Gi then took us down narrow country lanes, as we cut through a range of low hills on our way to Cenac, where I stopped to refuel… The filling station was on the edge of what seemed to be a bustling little village, but there was nobody near any of the pumps… I hopped off the bike, yanked the fuel hose from its slot and prepared to squeeze the trigger… An automated voice boomed out of a speaker above me, babbling in French…

I ignored it, all the while wondering why the bloody fuel wasn’t coming out of the hose… Then a truck pulled up next to me, and seeing the confusion and consternation on my face, the driver walked over and in a mixture of languages, neither of which I understood, eventually made me understand that I needed to insert my credit card into the slot first, before I could get any fuel…!!

This was the very first “self-service” pump I had used where you did not have to go inside the little kiosk and pay cash for your fuel… For a country boy from Africa, this was like rocket science…!!

I crossed the old bridge over the La Dordogne River, and turned west for La Roque Gageac. The winding country road hugged the river, where hundreds of holiday makers were paddling canoes and kayaks down the river… A few larger motorboats plied the wide and shallow river, taking tourists to little restaurants on  its banks… Many of the camping grounds I had passed were filled with Dutch and Belgium caravans and camper-vans, the cobbled streets of the villages were crowded with tourists, and the manufacturers of Foix Gras, which this entire area is famous for, were smiling broadly…

A massive castle hung high over the village of Beynac, and on other hills in the distance, I could see many more Chateaus, looming above the villages they had once protected hundreds of years ago…

The Kaab's cozy country home in Castels...

I pulled over to call Khalid, and discovered I was just 500 metres from the entrance to the property where their home was located… Khalid stood waving on the side of the road to indicate the small road leading off the tar… I rode down an avenue of tall oak trees before turning through the gates that lead into the garden of their homestead.

It was a joyful reunion with Marie-Helene coming out of their modest home to greet me warmly with hugs and kisses… It was hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, we had been driving through the burning desert sands of Egypt together, and now here we were, in the wet and misty weather of France…

Later that evening, we went to the village of St Cyprien, and enjoyed a meal in an outdoor food market, sipping wine, and enjoying snails, salads and the music from a small group of guys, playing their accordions while they walked between the tables… It was a very festive evening, rounded off with more wine when we got home…

Out of Africa... and into Europe. Reunited with Marie-Helene and Khalid...

Snails in their shells... Tastier than any I had eaten before...

A full house French Salad...

Kebabs with a Peanut sauce and watermelon...

I fell asleep thinking that this was the “real” France…!! Not the bright city lights of Paris, and the hotels and hectic business schedules that I had experienced so many times in the distant past… There was a far more relaxed attitude in all the people I had met, and although I had found the French to be rather unhelpful in the past when it came to assisting a lost traveler on a busy station platform, today had changed my views of them… France was a great place to be in…

And the Big Fella had the Green Mamba to talk to once again... I wondered at the stories they had to tell each other...

©GBWT 2010