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24 years ago I drove from London to Minorca through Andorra in the Pyrenees in my recently purchased 2.8i Ford Capri. I have always wanted to return to the Pyrenees, and this week I am there again at last with my GF for her birthday, in the 928.
This is not a trivial drive if you are based in London, although you in the US are no doubt used to these sorts of long road trips.
We set off mid afternoon on Friday and arrived at Roses on Costa Brava, Spain on Saturday evening, covering 900 miles in just under 30 hours. The worst part was getting from West London to the Channel Tunnel which is about 95 miles, but on Friday of a Holiday Weekend this took nearly 4 and half hours. Even though we missed out check-in by 15 mins, somehow we still got on our crossing, which meant we were at our motel in Evreux, France by 00:30.
The next day was much better than I expected, the 150 miles south from Clermont-Ferrand on the A75 was a revelation, a stunning road undulating around 1000m altitude, with the pay-off being the Millau Viaduct.
We arrived at Roses in plenty of time for dinner at the very pleasant Mas Palou Hotel Restaurant. The following day we walked part of the coastal path to Cadaqués, very picturesque indeed.
The next day we enjoyed a great drive to Llivia near Andorra, stopping for some short hikes along the way. However on Tuesday the weather turned, so although we still took a drive in to Andorra, we only got out of the car the shop and eat, and of course buy cheap fuel.
Wednesday we drove to the top of some of the ski resorts in Andorra, fortunately the weather was pretty good, so we got a few decent photos as well.
Thursday we took the excellent N260 west from Lliva, before heading to Luz-Saint-Sauveur via Vielha and a number of the cols favoured by the Tour de France, such as Col D'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet. A spectacular 200 mile drive that took about six hours.
Today we have completed the classic walk around the Cirque de Gavarnie near Luz, and now because there is a monumental thunderstorm, I've had a chance to write this post.
The car has been superb, and the AD08r have been absolutely awesome. I regret not making time to fix the air-con compressor, that was a mistake as it has been pretty warm at times.
The TPS sensor fix seemed to last about two days before apparently failing again (I can hear it click but the car is now hunting again at idle), irritating in town, but not spoiling my enjoyment.
The GoPro has been fairly well behaved, so I will post some video eventually.
We now have just two nights left before a fairly demanding 850 mile return drive on Sunday - that will be interesting!
I've heard of Andorra, but had to read up on it. Wiki says:
"Andorra is a parliamentary co-principality with the President of France and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell (Catalonia, Spain) as Co-Princes. This peculiarity makes the President of France, in his capacity as Prince of Andorra, an elected reigning monarch, although he is not elected by a popular vote of the Andorran people. The politics of Andorra take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, whereby the Head of Government is the chief executive, and of a pluriform multi-party system."
Back circa '71 I drove from Ramstein AB, left my "no papers" Karmen Ghia in a car park near the Swiss border then hopped by air and rail to Valencia Spain where I met my girlfriend and another couple with their new VW bug.
We then traveled up the Spanish Mediterranean coast through Sitges to Barcelona then inland up into the Pyrenees through Andorra. The road through Andorra was, basically carved through an avalanche with tree trunks sticking out of a 20 foot high wall of snow. As I recall, the road through Andorra was something like 26 miles from the Spanish border to the French border. Then back down into France and along the French Rivera, through Monaco into Italy and down the Italian coast to Rome.
Flew back to Basel Switzerland, train back into Deutschland, hitchhiked to the car park discovered that my clapped out Karmen Ghia was still where I'd abandoned it, fired it up and drove home. Great trip!
I advise you to walk into the Cirque de Troumouse. I really prefer it over Gavarnie. Much less people and as beautiful.
That was a great call, many thanks. We drove to the end of the toll road, but stayed in the comfort of the car, as the weather had really turned on Saturday. Nevertheless we could still get a feel for the grandeur of the location, despite the conditions.
Thanks for sharing the story & Pics. Looks like a wonderful trip.
This is the sort of trip these cars really shine on. 900 miles is more than "just a jaunt", even here in the US. It's amazing how "not tired" I feel, even after a long, long time behind the wheel.
Thanks for sharing the story & Pics. Looks like a wonderful trip.
This is the sort of trip these cars really shine on. 900 miles is more than "just a jaunt", even here in the US. It's amazing how "not tired" I feel, even after a long, long time behind the wheel.
Due to the change in weather, we decided to forego our final night's accommodation in Eaux Bonnes, and keep going. We managed the 900 mile return in just 18 hours, and less than half of that was on autoroutes.
I seem to have one of the very few S4 that didn't have cruise control fitted (thank you Derek Bell!) which is a shame as it would have been quite handy on highways. But even so the drive home through torrential rain at times, was not too bad at all. The Red Bulls helped!
06-02-2017, 04:29 PM
Trip to the Pyrenees
