Today dawned bright and cheery - cold, but you can’t have everything. Another day going across the grain of the mighty Pyrenees. Before breakfast, we checked out the gypsy caravan parked at the back of the accommodation. Possibly we might have been put up there if we arrived early, but we were more than happy to have been put up in the warm and cosy room of the main building - not so unique, but with all mod cons - including central heating! After profusely thanking our very nice hosts (who allowed us to use the breakfast room and kitchen the night before, against their normal policy), we coasted down the hill to Loures-Barousse to pick up supplies for lunch and evening meal (being Sunday all shops close after lunch - if they open at all). The sunshine improved things amazingly - water sparkles, the birds sing, the flowers bloom and the people are all good looking. The big thing we saw today was St Bertrand de Comminges. One of the les Beaux Villages des France, it has a very long history. In 72 B.C. the Roman General Pompey, while on the way back to Rome after a military campaign in Spain, founded a Roman colony there. The goal was to defend the passage to the Aran Valley and the Iberian peninsula. The colony was named Lugdunum Convenarum and had reached around 30,000 people at its highest point. It had a growing Christian community, which by the late fourth century got its own Diocese of Comminges, which was suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Eauze. It is believed to have been the place of exile from 39 AD of Herod Antipas, with his wife Herodias, under Emperor Caligula's orders. In 405 the Vandals sacked the city and forced the peasantry to move to the citadel. In 585 another Germanic invasion entirely razed the site. It would remain deserted for nearly five centuries. The bishopric however persisted under the name of Comminges and was transferred in the ninth century to the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Auch. In 1083 a knight related to the Counts of Toulouse, Bertrand de l'Isle-Jourdain, canon of Saint Augustine in Toulouse, was nominated bishop of Comminges. He ordered the construction of the cathedral and of the Romanesque cloister. The place became used by pilgrims as a stage on the route to Santiago de Compostela. Bertrand de l'Isle was canonised and became known as Saint-Bertrand in the 13th century and Lugdunum Convenarum became known as Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. The term Comminges itself comes from the Latin word "Convenae", meaning "those who came together" at Pompey's new settlement. In July 19, 2012, during the 99th edition of the Tour de France, it was one of the villages which cyclists passed by. We were very pleasantly surprised to get a chance to look inside, the official opening hours on Sundays are from 2pm because of the morning Mass. We were early enough to have a look around both the Cathedral and the cloister before Mass. After the visit there, it was a day of riding along minor roads, and enjoying the hills and dales of the mountains. On this clear day we were again blessed with almost continual views of the high peaks, snow covered, in the distance. As we got close to Bagneres the peaks also got closer - here we are on the road to the Col de Tourmalet (only 25 km away), which is on the other side of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre at 2876 m. On the way into down (from a higher vantage point) we got some great views. There were some tough climbs, and steep descents (10 percenters!) - all good fun on loaded bikes! Being minor roads, the surfaces were sometimes rough and with loose gravel, and the corners impossible to see around! Not to mention all the little white vans that hurtle around these roads! All good character building stuff. Bagneres is closely associated with the TdF, as the high passes are close by, but is also a spa town too, and has skiing close by, and is a great place to relax in winter or summer!