Over the Pyrenees to España

Monday 4th September 2023

We had a great nights sleep in Auch. I'm always a little apprehensive about town center overnighting, but it turned out to be a fine place to spend the night.

There was no disturbance whatsoever apart from about 0730 a council truck turned up to do something nearby, but was gone 10 minutes later and peace was restored.

We set off quite early for us at about 0900 in the direction of Spain.

It must have been the excitement of going to Spain that got us out of bed so early.

We took the D929 south and it was quite a long twisty route climbing the Pyrenees to the Bielsa tunnel.

There's a rest area just before the tunnel so we took the opportunity to give Ed's engine to rest and cool down.

Motorhome engines cooling off at the sumit

The temperature gauge rose on the climb up, not to the point of overheating, but higher than I'd seen it go before, so a rest was welcomed by us all.

There's nothing to say about the tunnel except it's free to use. 

It's just like driving through a concrete drain pipe, smaller than the Swiss tunnels and not so neatly maintained.

The decent down into Spain was a much easier drive, either down to better civil engineering or the terrain, I'm not sure which.

The journey on the French side was sunny, but also a little hazy on the surrounding mountains but as we came out of the tunnel in Spanish sun, it was clear all the way to Ainsa on the Rio Ara in the Aragon Region.

We're on a motorhome parking area for 3 euro for 24 hours and next to the medieval town.

It's another 3 euros for water, but I think we'll manage with what we have aboard. 

I'm going to look for a campsite in the area for a couple of nights this week to relax a little.

There's a really nice rebuilt medieval village next to the motorhome aire with lots of shops, bars and restaurants.

Sheep and goats on the road

We're in Spain !

Medieval (rebuilt) village at Ainsa next to the motorhome aire