The Activities
Cycling
Anyone who cycles will already know that France is cycling heaven. The roads are wonderful – not a pothole in sight, there are lots of cycle lanes and the French drivers are generally very courteous to cyclist. The Pyrénées Atlantiques is very hilly and there are lots of iconic cycling climbs like the Tourmalet and the Hautacam which are regularly used in the Tour de France. If you are a serious cyclist and want a real challenge as well as doing the famous climbs I would recommend the climb to the Port de Larrau. Its certainly very tough but the scenery is absolutely stunning
Lourdes is a great base to cycle from. There is also an excellent cycling map of routes all around Lourdes with graded rides – the paper copy can be obtained from the Lourdes Tourist office or you can access it online
The Oloron-Sainte-Marie tourist office also has a similar cycle map of the beautiful rides around the Ossau valley
Due to it being so hilly when planning a new route I like to know what the gradients may be. If you pay for Strava you will already have this facility. However, if you don’t have Strava – Ride With GPS is a good site. There is a free version where you can plan routes which will also give you gradients on all the climbs. The course can then be saved as a .fit file and can then be transferred to something like a Garmin device
Tour de France
The Tour de France always has a few stages in the Pyrenees and these are great fun to watch. The mountain stages are a great spectacle as the riders are more spread out and the atmosphere is always lively, also you are in the mountains what more do you need?
There are a number of ways to watch the Tour at the top of one of the climbs.
The roads are shut off early but some people (especially in camper vans) camp overnight on the mountain
Cycling up the climb – the roads stay open on the day of the Tour for a long time for ‘normal’ cyclists and if you are able this is best way of getting to the top of the climb.
Some climbs have a third road that goes to the top. Therefore on the day of the Tour you can drive up the third road. These tend to be quite narrow roads and can get busy so it is worth setting off and getting there in the morning. People tend to dump their car on the roadside and then walk the rest of the way to the summit.
For example the Col du Soudet which was in the Tour this year (2023) has a third road to the summit. However, iconic climbs like the Tourmalet and the Hautacam have no third road so I’m afraid the only way to see the summit there is to either camp or cycle – Bonne chance!
Rafting & Canyoning
Rafting
This is very popular in the Pyrenees Atlantique. Bidarray is a popular spot for rafting and there are a number of companies that are available. We have not done it for a number of years so I don’t know which companies are still around but here is the list from Trip Advisor of the various companies that are available. Some of the good reviews are for 2023 which implies that are still available – it is a fun day out
Canyoning
Canyoning is great fun and involves scrambling and abseiling down waterfalls. You normally do it with a couple of instructors who make sure you are safe at all times. They provide wetsuits, helmets etc. The feeling of abseiling down a waterfall is absolutely exhilarating. There are a number of companies in the Ossau Valley. We have done it a number of times and it has always been fantastic. Unfortunatly the company we used is no longer in operation but from Trip Advisor there are a number of companies that are recommended
