After the usual careful search of corners, powerpoints and drawers of the apartment to check that nothing had been left behind, it was again saddling up and heading off west. A last look from the Boulevard at the mountains, then a deep breath and plunge into the morning peak traffic. Our ridewithgps route had found a ‘bike route’ out of the city that took us from the centre to quiet countryside in surprisingly little time. Once we came across roadworks and the dreaded ‘route barree’, but we walked the bikes for about 100 m around witches hats and the work crew, and were off again. Our route took us between a rail line and two major roads south towards Gan. Only once did the path/road turn to gravel - otherwise it was level and sealed, if a bit rough at times. At Gan we found the D24, the main road to our destination tonight. Not a lot of traffic on this road, and quite a few sportifs zooming past us in either direction. On a weekday, these are mainly the older males, with some younger males (professionals maybe getting some hills in for the Tour de France??) really hammering along. We have crossed various routes that are part of the Compostella to Santiago at different places (St Bertrand de Comminges a few days ago, Lourdes, of course), and we are seeing more and more pilgrims now, walking singly or in pairs, with the scallop shell on the backpack. Our host tonight mentioned a guy that stayed recently who was walking from Verona - some of the people we’ve come across look quite weather beaten and hardy! The hills were rolling and kept coming, and with warm humid conditions, quite a sweaty day too. As usual the scenery was great. Farmland, cow (and goat) bells, church steeples in the distance, the odd chateau ruins up on a high hill, the well kept houses and gardens - all postcard material. We had lunch at Oloron Ste Marie, and a brief look at this pretty town from the ramparts of the old chateau and medieval town centre. Another town through which one of the pilgrim ways transects. They do it tough, these pilgrims - as the walking route takes them up and down the high points of the town, but on side footpaths (involving a lot of stairs!). Our day finished with a steep climb (16%!!) up to our accommodation - this time a chambre d’hotes, where we treated ourselves to the meal prepared by our hosts Terrie and Edie (an English couple) who catered to our request for a vegan dinner. As we had nothing else to do (like shopping, getting meals ready, doing the washing of our cycling clothes - thanks to Terrie), there was time to relax in their pool!