Venere Travel Blog - It's our business where you sleep!

For those of you brave enough out there to even consider taking your bikes off the local country lanes and into terrain as high and lengthy as a mountain range then you might want to read on.

If you’d rather just use the bike to nip to get a pint of milk then you might want to think again. The Pyrenees are some of the most baron and beautiful mountains in Europe. If ever the French and Spanish wanted to become enemies all of a sudden then they wouldn’t have to waste time building a wall between them. These mountains do a pretty good job on their own. But if you’re going to get your bike around and in between them though, you’re going to need to do a bit of reading first.

Your personal Tour de France could be from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean cutting across roughly 1000 miles of mountainous roads. This will get people talking straight away. Then there’s another pretty impressive figure that’s says it’ll be nearly 100,000 feet of climbing for one to take on. If this hasn’t put you off then nothing will.

Your trip will take in 22 mountain passes, some that will take you up to seven or eight thousand feet. Don’t go thinking that this will take you a weekend though. The tour will be roughly 12 days on the bike and 2 days in bed or on the sofa probably. It begins on the Atlantic side in Biarritz and heads across the passes via St Girons, eventually getting to Perpignan and then onto the actual Mediterranean for a little rest. This will take roughly eight days, with a rest day in the middle to help you last the distance. Then the way back isn’t quite as long and will only take four days, as it goes the rolling hills on the north side of the mountains, which is mostly down hill and so will let you ease of and into a lower gear for the most part.

On average this sort of trip will mean you’re on your bike for just under 6 hours a day, which might seem like a lot to most but to those who’ve now read this far, will probably seem quite reasonable. It’s not all about riding though, it’s holiday too remember? So when you’re off your bike, you can relax at the finest hotels and guesthouses along the way, some of them in pretty remote locations too, and you’ll get to see some truly breathtaking villages and towns that simply defy gravity.

Photo of Cirque d’Estaubé National Park, French Pyrenees, by danielguip