The owner of the hotel said that the road was too dangerous to walk and there were lots of cars and motorcyclists zooming up the road in the morning so we, and a French couple, took the bus. The first journey took us down to the valley town of Laruns. On the way we passed through Eaux-Chaudes, with a huge spa hotel, which still seems to be open. In Laruns we had an ice-cream and coffee and wandered around the market which filled the main square. Cloud was starting to cover the hills as we got on the second bus. The trip up to Gourette went through Eaux-Bonnes, another spa town. There were some huge hotels (the size of the Ritz in London). One sold in 2018 for only 10000 euros and is still abandoned. The town had been developed in the 1860s with hotels, gardens, and a casino. In the 1880s people started visiting to enjoy “discovering” the Pyrenees. Then came skiing. Post WWII the decline increased as no-one took spa treatments and a new ski resort was built higher up the mountain (Gourette). We reached Gourette and our hotel was 50m from the bus stop. We were excited to spot a laundromat, but found that all the machines were out of service. We stocked up on water and snacks and are all set to start walking again after our day off.
We bumped into Kevin in the supermarket. He carries a tent, and had camped three hours walk into yesterday’s big stage, and then completed the walk to Gourette the next day.