Day 16, Wednesday 20th May 2026
We are in the department of Pyrenees Ariége of which we have driven through before in both 2013 and 2022. So this time we choose mostly a different route to explore (some towns we cannot avoid to drive through).
Our day began with lovely sunshine and the melody of cow bells as the herd walked past our parking spot.
We descended down to Tarascon sur Ariège, the river that the department is named after. As we had previously visited the town we just popped into the tourist office and then had a stroll through the small local market. Mark had a coffee and we bought a baguette as well as an almond croissant for breakfast.
Then onto roads untraveled.. the D18 up to the PORT de LERS. The road is on the narrow side but definitely doable. The views were beautiful of the snow capped mountains surrounding us. Just before the top we parked up and had a lovely hours walk to see the cascade d’Arbu.
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| Watch out for the brown bears |
We had a brief stop on the Col. The Tour de France has used it 5 times
We then drove down and parked overlooking LAKE LERS in a stunning natural setting at an altitude of 1,274 m at the foot of Mount Béas.
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| I think they are smaller in real life heheh |
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| 70km today |
