I was asked about it in another thread so starting new thread to answer.
Spouse and I visited pyrenees this year from late april to early may. A week in besalu in spain, then 2 weeks in a van on the french side.
Van was 22ft renault jumper built out by possl. Jumper is same as ram promaster.
Van had solar, inverter and a big enough battery to run my apnea machine all night. Very cool cartridge toilet, hot water with shower head that could be used outside. Fridge, stove, big table. I'm 6' and slept comfortably because bed was lengthwise. Van held bikes inside.
Trip was 'really great'. We followed the through roads as close to the spanish border as we could, visited a ton of passes. We slept free for every night except the last night when we needed to be near a city to facilitate an early drop off on last day. The rv parks were really sad, bunch of people with great vans that just sit packed together in their lawn chairs.
Advice about the trip:
- the produce in france is insanely good. every grocery we visited had produce as good as we'd ever seen, and a great selection of local cheese.
- the farmers markets were like grocery stores but with much bigger and better selection of produce and cheese.
- because the produce was so good we cooked every meal while we were in the van.
- we intended to drive from med to atlantic and back but... we followed our noses and did what we wanted and went much much slower. 2 weeks we were sort of rushing westward and only made it to col du tourmalet (about half way.) We were slow and should have gone slower.
- camped at passes many times for the silence, great air, views and solitude.
- favorite pass was 'horquette d'ancizan'
- favorite town was bagneres de bigorre, or maybe bossost (in val d'aran, spain but on north side of pyrenees). Occitane people are really terrific.
- visit every farmers market
- ask the butcher ladies in the grocery for wine advice - they know their wine
- bread is awful in spain. don't buy bread in spain. wine: yes, cheese: yes, bread: no!!
- beware the secret code word 'artisnal'. If you see this word it means 'tourist crap'. Everything in france is artisnal, so if the sign says 'artisnal' then its a scam and product is bad. cheese, bread, meat, wine.
- biologique: barnyard - means they put manure in it.
- language: I am the ugly american and speak no french. almost noone cared because we had important stuff to discuss (wine, best trails, hot cheese tips.)
Best food we had:
Lunch at restaurant 'Pont Vell' in Besalu, Spain. Call ahead and reserve. Ask the waiter what to order. He's super opinionated and... correct. Great wine there too. There's a 'vermutheria' in besalu thats run by a south american that is pretty great too.
We're already talking about going back and starting from san sebastian and going east. We brought mountain bikes but the hiking trails are much too steep. Better to bring road bikes and enjoy climbing the lovely passes.
In besalu we stayed a week at an airbnb run by an american. 'Mas Costa Besalu'. Surrounded by catalonian maquis and barley fields. Very very relaxed and away from everything, tons of hiking all around.
