11th of August, Arette Pierre Saint Martin to Barbotan Les Thermes via Pau.

Leaving Saint Martin was actually rather hard, I filled my washing up bowl full of cold Pyrenees water and had a good wash before I packed up the bed and set off, the views to be had on the descent of the French side of the mountains had to be said weren't quite as good and in parts obscured by cloud, I initially headed for Pau, a small city that had been described as an interesting historical town with a chateaux. I arrived after a mundane drive, parked up and hopped on the bike for the customary reconnoitre. I was back at the van within an hour, I found the place dull, dirty and totally uninviting, obviously I hadn't seen all of it but I hadn't got this impression before, not even of the car park at La Rochelle so I followed my instincts and hit the road again, this time headed towards Barbotan.

Barbotan Les Thermes, as its full name would suggest is a spa town and a quaint little one at that, the Aire was pleasant, the small "high street" was full of local produce shops and brasseries and towards the lower end of the town stood and impressively large church for the populous, a medieval gate and a extremely well manicured park. For a 33 year old bloke I've spent a lot of time commenting on parks or sitting outside people watching or reading in the sun (I've done most of war of the world's now) I guess this pace of life just infects you, I'm not saying the French are lazy but it would appear that today only half the businesses in town have bothered to open and everybody is in the park, snoozing on benches.

today hasn't been rip roaring, I'm surmising that the combination of the last two days being a sensory overload, the lack of regular proper meals, sleeping in the van and the heat have meant that there were always going to be low spots, I think today was destined to fail but I was always prepared to sacrifice a day or two in three and a bit weeks to the gods of meh.

A nice spell in the public baths and the steam rooms of this historical town would do me good, closed you say, thought so. Only one thing left to do.....un biere si vous plait.