Day 5 - Lourdes
Lourdes is 'Special' in the words of the hotel receptionist. She meant it in the same way that Steve Martin's Ruprecht was special. It's a weird place full of people who believe passionately that a visit to a small hole in a cliff face and a sprinkle of water will cure them of what ails them. It's so frustrating and endearing and annoying to see them here in their thousands - Lourdes has 6 million pilgrims a year and only Paris has more hotel rooms in France. And of course all of them are spending unfeasibly large sums of money in souvenirs.
It's by nature then, full of those closer to the end of their lives than the beginning. And that means appalling driving. They are really terrible drivers around here. Which is a pity because the roads are magnificent. The morning was taken up with some beautiful twisties and brilliant passes.
But the highlight of the day was a visit to the Pau Arnos race circuit.
We just showed up and they were quite happy for us to do four laps of their circuit with just a signed waiver... And it's it's a brilliant track. Could have been made specially for the Atom. Tight, technical and full of elevation changes, it's a real test and it would have been great to spend the day there, but we had other fish to fry. Talking of food, the circuit recommended a place for lunch. No choice of menu, but absolutely delicious - and they got on of the instructors to escort us there! They offered to let us have the afternoon on the track pretty much to ourselves for just 60 euros each and I was sorely tempted, but I need to have some rubber left on the the tyres for the journey onward and home.
In the afternoon, Steve and I set off to reverse the roads that we had done in the morning, and if anything they were even better. The weather held, although it threatened to rain at one point, and we had a fabulous day. We rounded it off with a delicious meal at a restaurant that Julian had found and tucked in to some proper French grub. A delicious end to a superb day.
It's by nature then, full of those closer to the end of their lives than the beginning. And that means appalling driving. They are really terrible drivers around here. Which is a pity because the roads are magnificent. The morning was taken up with some beautiful twisties and brilliant passes.
But the highlight of the day was a visit to the Pau Arnos race circuit.
We just showed up and they were quite happy for us to do four laps of their circuit with just a signed waiver... And it's it's a brilliant track. Could have been made specially for the Atom. Tight, technical and full of elevation changes, it's a real test and it would have been great to spend the day there, but we had other fish to fry. Talking of food, the circuit recommended a place for lunch. No choice of menu, but absolutely delicious - and they got on of the instructors to escort us there! They offered to let us have the afternoon on the track pretty much to ourselves for just 60 euros each and I was sorely tempted, but I need to have some rubber left on the the tyres for the journey onward and home.
In the afternoon, Steve and I set off to reverse the roads that we had done in the morning, and if anything they were even better. The weather held, although it threatened to rain at one point, and we had a fabulous day. We rounded it off with a delicious meal at a restaurant that Julian had found and tucked in to some proper French grub. A delicious end to a superb day.
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