Where's Bertie? He's at a large Aire within a huge car park in Vitoria Gasteiz. It's free to stay here with a free service point too. (Exact location: 42.86680, -2.68558)
Weather: Rainy start, then variously sunny, overcast and more rain.
There was not a hint of light in the sky as we left Cavignac this morning, but we managed to negotiate our way along dark little lanes and manoeuvre Bertie into the small car park that sits nearest to the start point of the parkrun at Les Dougnes - an area of open recreation land, about 30km north of Bordeaux.
On New Year's Day this parkrun only attracted one runner. Last week there were five. Today it was positively buzzing. I didn't count (and the results haven't been published - parkrun in France is a very lax affair), but there may have been a dozen of us. Most were local, and we almost counted as local compared to the other two tourists, from Canberra, Australia.
Parkrun is not a race, but even so, it was pleasing that I came first female and third overall. I'll overlook the fact that the result was only because of a lack of fast runners today, not because I am particularly speedy (25:41 was my time; given the course and conditions, I was happy with that).
Alas, Mick had to stop just over a mile in. His calf yet again, although he managed to stop before it 'went' this time, so hopefully it won't be too long before he can run again.
Wiping the excess mud off ourselves (spread impressively far up my legs!), showering and breakfasting took longer than expected, so it was somewhere approaching 11am by the time we got on the road.
For me the first part of the journey was spent trying to ascertain the most sensible route, as there's not an obvious trunk route that runs alongside the toll motorway from the S of Bordeaux down to the Spanish border. Eventually I had the brainwave of looking at this very blog to see what we had done in 2016, and found that we had taken the toll road, at a cost of under €23. To save at least 2 hours of tedious roads (negotiating roundabouts, junctions and constantly changing speed limits and possibly running into Yellow Vest protests (which are still going on - we've encountered a few this week, although none blocking traffic flow)), that seemed like a reasonable price to pay. Inflation over the course of 3 years increased today's price to €25.41, paid over the course of 6 toll booths*.
With our journey time to San Sebastien being down from four-hours-something to just two, it gave us the opportunity to travel further today - hence we have ended the day in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It's a place I'd like to visit properly and it would seem sensible to do so whilst we are parked up here. The argument against spending two nights here, to sight-see tomorrow, is that tomorrow is Sunday, which is a very suitable day for travelling a long distance without the impediment of lorries. Plus it's raining and forecast to continue to do so, which weather also suggests driving to be the better choice of activity - particularly if it takes us somewhere less rainy!
^^(*Four toll booths in France between Capbreton and the Spanish border. Two in Spain between the border and the turn for the A1. I'm pretty sure we could have avoided at least one set of tolls on the A10 in France by leaving the motorway at the junction before and rejoining at the junction after the toll plaza. It's something we did on our return journey in 2016, per our SatNav's directions. Today we opted not to try it for fear of meeting Yellow Vest disruption on the road in between the junctions.)
Weather: Rainy start, then variously sunny, overcast and more rain.
There was not a hint of light in the sky as we left Cavignac this morning, but we managed to negotiate our way along dark little lanes and manoeuvre Bertie into the small car park that sits nearest to the start point of the parkrun at Les Dougnes - an area of open recreation land, about 30km north of Bordeaux.
On New Year's Day this parkrun only attracted one runner. Last week there were five. Today it was positively buzzing. I didn't count (and the results haven't been published - parkrun in France is a very lax affair), but there may have been a dozen of us. Most were local, and we almost counted as local compared to the other two tourists, from Canberra, Australia.
Parkrun is not a race, but even so, it was pleasing that I came first female and third overall. I'll overlook the fact that the result was only because of a lack of fast runners today, not because I am particularly speedy (25:41 was my time; given the course and conditions, I was happy with that).
Alas, Mick had to stop just over a mile in. His calf yet again, although he managed to stop before it 'went' this time, so hopefully it won't be too long before he can run again.
Wiping the excess mud off ourselves (spread impressively far up my legs!), showering and breakfasting took longer than expected, so it was somewhere approaching 11am by the time we got on the road.
For me the first part of the journey was spent trying to ascertain the most sensible route, as there's not an obvious trunk route that runs alongside the toll motorway from the S of Bordeaux down to the Spanish border. Eventually I had the brainwave of looking at this very blog to see what we had done in 2016, and found that we had taken the toll road, at a cost of under €23. To save at least 2 hours of tedious roads (negotiating roundabouts, junctions and constantly changing speed limits and possibly running into Yellow Vest protests (which are still going on - we've encountered a few this week, although none blocking traffic flow)), that seemed like a reasonable price to pay. Inflation over the course of 3 years increased today's price to €25.41, paid over the course of 6 toll booths*.
With our journey time to San Sebastien being down from four-hours-something to just two, it gave us the opportunity to travel further today - hence we have ended the day in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It's a place I'd like to visit properly and it would seem sensible to do so whilst we are parked up here. The argument against spending two nights here, to sight-see tomorrow, is that tomorrow is Sunday, which is a very suitable day for travelling a long distance without the impediment of lorries. Plus it's raining and forecast to continue to do so, which weather also suggests driving to be the better choice of activity - particularly if it takes us somewhere less rainy!
^^(*Four toll booths in France between Capbreton and the Spanish border. Two in Spain between the border and the turn for the A1. I'm pretty sure we could have avoided at least one set of tolls on the A10 in France by leaving the motorway at the junction before and rejoining at the junction after the toll plaza. It's something we did on our return journey in 2016, per our SatNav's directions. Today we opted not to try it for fear of meeting Yellow Vest disruption on the road in between the junctions.)
So excited that Bertie is on the road again! Breathlessly waiting on daily installments... Snow on the mountain here #undertheduvetaswespeak
ReplyDeleteWe also take that but if toll road it is worth the expense
ReplyDelete