Crossing the Pyrenees

« Contrairement à ce qui se passe lorsque je suis en voiture, où le paysage se donne à voir et pas à être, à vélo je suis assis dedans » Paul Fournel

From one week to the next, we leave the Lausanne scenery behind to head for the Pyrenees; we trade our laptops for our bicycles.

Here you find two wanderers of landscapes, spellbound by a succession of wild passes, deserted passes, forgotten passes. Spellbound by cows—so many—horses and even ponies lining the paths. Spellbound by the smell of wet road in the morning, by fog brushing the summits, by the musk of sheep flocks. And then, suddenly—another climb, the dazzling light of the sun forcing our eyes to blink, the passes which, as soon as they are reached, summon us to plunge down the other side—always into a new scene.

In the mountains, thought disappears. You think only of what you are doing. Everything else dissolves. Even the everyday, it lies far away, hidden beneath that sea of clouds that simmers gently below. Carpe Diem.

Blend all this together and you have the taste of those days spent crossing the Pyrenees, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

For me, crossing the Pyrenees was something deeply personal. It tied together my childhood—those places I had visited long ago, growing up near Toulouse—with the passions of my so-called adulthood (am I even allowed to call myself an adult yet?): the passion for effort, for the steady push of pedals, for discovering landscapes through the simple power of my legs.

For Nathalie, to cross a mountain range by bicycle, carrying her belongings beneath the saddle, having never truly cycled before—it was surely absurd, hardly advisable. But must every action make sense to be worthy of being lived? She is, after all, the only woman I could have shared this adventure with.

For a week, we shared a simple and singular routine. Every morning, we wake up, we pedal, we appreciate every moment until we reach our next evening of rest. Something feels so natural about flowing through these varied landscapes, about watching the kilometers melt away under our wheels, gliding from valley to valley… It isn’t so often we get to experience the world with such pure and simple awe. 

At last, reaching the ocean, feet in the water, we savored this moment of grace. Proud and happy in the face of this (small) personal accomplishment.

Numbers of the journey


• 750 km

• 17,500 m of elevation

• 7 days

Passes

• Col de Palières
• Port de Lers
• Col d’Agnès
• Col de la Core
• Col de Portet d’Aspet
• Col de Menté
• Col du Portillon
• Col de Peyresourde
• Col d’Aspin
• Col du Tourmalet
• Hautacam
• Col du Soulor
• Col d’Aubisque
• Col de Marie Blanque
• Col de Bagargi