France and Pyrenees
 

A couple of us will tour France next late summer. We've settled on much of the route, but are wondering and hoping someone may have a suggestion as to a Route to take through the Pyrenees into Spain from Bordeaux to Zaragoza or maybe Pamplona. Is it possible to avoid tunnels ?
Any advice / suggestions at all is very much welcome.

The D934 (FR) / A136 (ES) is a secondary road that crosses the border without using tunnels south of Laruns. It’s en route to Zaragoza.

The Pyrenees are probably my favorite place to cycle, and I’ve spent months riding in this region. I’ve crossed the mountains many times, and there are plenty of route options on the eastern and western ends, though the central area has fewer choices. You can use the heatmap on RideWithGPS to see which roads are popular with cyclists, and then check Google Street View to help plan your route. In my experience, drivers are generally considerate, especially on the Spanish side. Spain recently introduced a law that requires drivers to keep a safe distance when passing cyclists and to slow down by 20 km/h below the speed limit.

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Just follow Eurovelo 1

The Pyrenees crossing is absolutely beautiful from Hendaye. There’s a good campsite “Ariztigain” in Sunbilla.

Why Zaragoza?

Your could cycle over Port de Larrau what is very nice. after explore the little roads inside the RED I marked, visit Pamplona and San Sebastian.

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Lots of options, none bad ;). You can take the EV1 from Hendaye or continue to Donostia/San Sebastian along the coast and take the nice via verde de Plazaola in the direction of Pamplona. There's the EV3 from Saint Jean Pied de Port, the classic Compostella trail. Many border crossings on small roads in this area (Basque country) and you can puzzle together some nice routes, but the hills can be steep and neverending.
More to the east the passes are higher, La Pierre Saint Martin/Piedra San Martin is my favorite, great scenery on both sides of the border. You can either go to Pamplona from there or continue straight south to the Bardenas Reales desert. Somport is the easiest of the high passes but also the busiest and least interesting on the French side. After the Col du Pourtalet you'll encounter great scenery and interesting villages between Yaca and the valley of the Rio Gallego, riding south to Zaragoza. One of the memorable things about the border crossing passes in the Pyrennees is that the often foul weather on the French side (with rain and fog) can change abruptly on the borderline and looking down into Spain not the tiniest of clouds is in sight. Doubles the pleasure of reaching the top!

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Piedra San Martin

yes! nice one. now I remember the day I did Larrau I also went over Saint Martin. This on the road bike.

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That's a nice loop for sure. Makes sense that you were on a road bike when you took on the Port de Larrau, easy on the Spanish side but very hard on the French side. Certainly not for everybody, I'd call it a sufferfest on a loaded touring bike.

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That was around 30 years ago ;)) I was young, very trained, and strong.

a long time ago from Toulouse I meandered south then along the pyrenees east to west and crossed into Spain in the Basque region for a few days, and up to Bordeaux then back to Toulouse. The whole trip was pretty neat landscape wise and I would second looking at recent popular routes crossing into Spain from Bordeaux.

Ive biked on some Veloroute trails and you pretty much can't go wrong using them, although there are still so many small roads in the Basque area crossing from France into Spain, I'm sure you can cross over more in the hills rather than the coast and the ride would be perfectly fine.

overall, the climbs in the Basque area are a lot less high than more in the middle of the Pyrenees, so if you are concerned by very hard climbing, it will be a lot more moderate, although if riding loaded, it's always an advantage to do regularly climbing training rides with your touring bike loaded to get the legs in better shape, and be sure that your gearing is low enough for your bike weight.

Is this a credit card trip or camping, fast roadie riding or a more relaxed pace?

[QUOTE=BobG;23661036]If your destination is Pamplona, I found a route on my BIG PAPER MAP (55"x29"!) that keeps you off highways the entire way. It starts at Hernani just below San Sebastian.

It starts as G-3410 and soon becomes NA-4150. Follow that E&S to NA-170.

Turn E at NA-170. Follow 11K to Saldias. Turn S at Saldias on NA- NA-4029 & 4114. Follow NA-4114 to NA-411, becomes 4110.

Follow NA-4110 E&S to outskirts of Pamplona. Looks like quiet country roads most of the way, maybe some traffic the first 10K out of Hernani. The entire 93km route is on street view. Check it out!

Here's the Google version.

QUOTE]



the parallel roads NA 4220 + NA4221 + NA4130 look much more quiet and less traffic ... compared to the 4100

;)

Not sure why you mentioned your big paper map. If you referred to a RideWithGPS map you would have noticed a popular dedicated bike route I-8 that also covers that distance that is either in a separated lane or car free. To each there own for route selection as everyone’s preferences are different, the use of digital maps would have given you more information and choices.

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"I know more about this than you do"

don’t you know that all fórums are like that? ;)))

i think we all use (like said before) google street view as adicional tool … where is the problem in zooming in and out? first zoom out, take a overview, then zoom in detail to plan.

I was incorrect, that was not a RideWithGPS image.

Atlas, I'm so used to doing my own mapping I've never even looked at a EuroVelo route. I finally looked at their overview map and lo & behold, my route is very similar to theirs but on small roads. Their paths indeed look charming. Their Pyrenees section begins in Hendaye. I chose Hernani a bit further south, unaware of the existing route at Hendaye. OP said they were coming from Bordeaux, I thought they might continue further down the coast.

My route follows the small roads through Arano & Goizueta. I now see the Eurovelo route follows mostly paths next to the highways. Both routes merge at Saldias and follow adjacent routes south. On the final leg into Pamplona their route utilizes bike paths, mine uses low traffic roads.

No need for you and str to delete the quoted posts of mine as requested at the PM. Thanks & apologies for my confusion & rant.

Atlas Shrugged - Are the purple "I" routes from a different routing organization? I don't see them on the EuroVelo list. I viewed segments of the "I-8" route starting at Andoain from your screenshot above on Google "Path View". ;) Man, they must use scooters to scout those routes! I love all the pedestrian/bike tunnels. I want to ride it! (wishful thinking at age 77 with health issues) :(

Never mind, I found it!

https://navarra.viasverdes.com/en/VV_Plazaola.htm

Cycling the NA1300 beside the highway must be a pleasure ... NOISE wise. Some parts are very nice. Others view street view, not.

That would be my main quibble with EV-1. It hugs & crosses N-121A many times below Hendaye. That's a big red highway on the paper map. The route I mapped from Hernani is all paved but it's entirely small, squiggly white & yellow roads.

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EV-1

There isn’t a right or wrong way to select your routes, so I don’t judge anyone’s preferences. Some people like highways with wide shoulders, while others go for quiet gravel roads. I really enjoy roads with little traffic and will choose them whenever possible. What I’m trying to say is that digital mapping tools give you a lot more information to help plan your route. In the end, everyone should do what works for them, but if you haven’t tried digital mapping and routing, I recommend giving it a try. It takes a bit to learn, but the benefits are worth it.

A couple of years ago I rode the EV1 from Hendaye over the Pyrenees.

My recollection is that it was just beautiful once you got out of Hendaye onto the ’Vias Verdas dels Bidasoa’ (greenway) and a wonderful climb with little traffic on a wooded winding road.