Day 22, Tuesday 26 May 2026
After 3 weeks in France, we go over one more Col into Spain via Port de Larrau.
We enjoyed our rest day on the Col de Soulor. We went on a hike to Lake Soum from our parking area.
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| 3 voltures sitting on the rock.. looking for a meal. |
We had a cooked lunch and then relaxed, reading and looking at the amazing views.
The fridge was playing up with the temperature rising. After a bit of research Mark cleaned the burner and it is now keeping the beer cold … phew. When it cooled down a bit later in the evening we strolled down a track through the pine forest.
The next morning we woke up in time to see the sunrise over the mountain range then after our coffee, we had an early start, leaving our beautiful spot in the Col de Soulor at 7:30am. As the road to the Col d’Aubisque was still closed we took the D126 down into the valley via Asson to Arudy where we did a quick shop, fuelled up and used the dump point… we are now ready to continue our travels.
We stopped to have morning tea in Arette, which is located in the Barétous valley. Farming is the main the economic activity of the town along with logging and tourism. The earthquake on August 13, 1967 destroyed 80% of the village. This sad event has significantly shaped the history of the town. Barétous Valley is also known as the birthplace of the Musketeers, an elite French Guard, honored by Alexandre Dumas. Due to the land bordering Spain and the cooperation of the Barétous people, the Treaty of the Junta of Roncal is the oldest peace treaty in Europe and is renewed each year since 1385 on July 13 at Col de la Pierre Saint Martin, where French and Spanish meet to agree on the use of pastures.
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| Mark admired the workmanship |
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| This guy has been decked out with some Aussie gear.. who would have thought to see a Kings in EU |
After our walk through town we continued on , passing beautiful lush countryside and lovely villages as we made our way up into Spain via the Col de Larrau. There are numerous passes into Spain and we have done most of them so we chose one we hadn’t done before! We stopped to take one last look at the Pyrenees and the valley.
Then down we descended into Spain. We stopped at a couple of shady spots for lunch and a rest in the hot afternoon.
Then later we made our way to the Roncal Valley, stopping at an aire in Isaba.
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| 171km today |
