Wonderful breakfast at Natacha’s house in Castillon en Couserans. If you have the opportunity, don’t hesitate to stay with her. Natasha, a former photographer, will be delighted to welcome you to her home, which is decorated with her photographs. And if you can, ask for room 1, it’s really beautiful :)

With a full belly I can set off, and this time the first pass will be Portet-d’Aspet, which is relatively easy in this direction. I get there chatting to some young people I’ve met along the way and we have a coffee up there. Our paths separate further down, and I head for two other fairly easy passes.

The Col de Buret 599m, not much to say...

The Col des Ares is a little longer but still very easy.

I take a lunch break at the orientation table in Antichan-de-Frontignes. And a ‘Place de l’Échiquier’ attracts me. Unfortunately, the chessboard wasn’t out when I passed it. The village seems incredibly vibrant and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fountains in use !

Finally, I arrived at Gourdan-Polignan station and took the train to Tarbes, from where I’d set off again tomorrow morning.
On Sunday evening, as I went to get something to eat in the centre of Tarbes, I met two cycle tourists, Nicolas and Laetitia. Nicolas asked me for information about bike repairers... information that I didn’t have, of course. But one thing led to another and as we chatted I told him that I too had transmission problems and that I had to deal with them. To cut a long story short, he fixed the bike for me and I understood why I couldn’t adjust it : a cable that was too tight was preventing me from improving the adjustment.