Rainy awakening in Gascogne. Tent is wet, dark clouds moving in the sky.
That means lazy morning with a coffee and a few croissants at the campsite bar.
At 10:00 pm we decide to leave our equipment at the campsite and do a tour to the local producers of famous black pigs and foie gras.
5 km from Saissan, Marie and Nicolas Rey breed black pigs since many years in the village called Loubersan. Very warm welcome, our sidecar attracts attention as often. Nicolas let's us taste his products made from his "Cochons Gascons", a species famous for producing more "fat" than most other pigs. More fat = more taste. For certain products, he even "defats" the meat and pigs don't get corn which would even increase fat production.
From there, we go see the pigs. Nicolas Rey has 5 ha of land and the pigs move around freely. Seems to be a sound program he is running on his pigs (by the way my favorite animal together with cows).
It starts to rain again and Nicolas recommends us to see quickly his neighbour to get a little portion of foie gras for this evening's dinner. Done and back we go to the campsite to prepare our baggage and get moving on.
Since both tyres are close to dead, Google maps tells me that there is a Moto Cross Racing team just nearby. Since I know, that most cross riders change their tyres very quickly, there is probably a chance to find what I need. Somewhere lost in nature, a guy has a perfectly equipped moto cross repair shop - even with Öhlins shock service. For 20€ including mounting, I can choose a front tyre in the heap. As expected, most used tyres are almost as new.
Handshake and off we go again. We are hungry and on our way down back to the Pyrenees, there is a woman who prepares "Croustades", a tarte made of ultra fine layers of dough and then baked with various vegetables or fruits. Isabelle lives on a farmhouse in the countryside. We ring the door and Isabelle welcomes us warmly. But we are unlucky today, she prepares her croustades always on order and there is never "stock" available. So, the only thing we take away is the picture. Anyway, we need to come back to beautiful Gascogne.
Landscape of Gascogne reminds me of Toscana: soft hills, everything is green, single farmhouses here and there.
Since we are still hungry, we get bread at the next boulangerie and sit down near a little church under one of these big trees.
Reaching the mountains, we drive up famous "Col de Tourmalet", one of these passes where Tour de France winners are made.
Typical French concrete built ski station with cable car to "Pic du Midi" at intermediary "La Mongie".
At 2.115 m altitude, picture with famous statue "Le Géant" or "Octave" with reference to Octave Lapize who was first to ride the Col de Tourmalet in 1910.
On our way down, beautiful little campsite in Barèges next to a mountain river. Sun is still shining and we prepare our tent for the night.
