Day -1 : Arrival in Hendaye

Set off from rain-soaked Bristol airport to Toulouse, where we arrived without a hitch into warm sunshine. From a quick inspection of the bike boxes, they seemed to have survived pretty well apart from a few scrapes.
We were met by our tour rep, Alan, then joined by Simon who arrived on the Gatwick flight.
The transfer to Hendaye topic about 4hrs but seemed to pass quite quickly amid conversations about the route and cycling in general, as the Pyrenees loomed into view. Not quite the clear sunny view we'd hoped for, they were barely visible through a thick, muggy haze topped by thunder clouds. Alan then recounted how a MTB trip last week had to be rerouted due to snow ...so we could be in for some interesting weather.
After a refuelling stop involving pasta and a medicinal glass of red wine, we finally arrived in Hendaye and settled in to the Campanile. Plan for tomorrow is to re-assemble the bikes and take them for an easy spin to make sure everything's ok, before the other guys join us tomorrow afternoon ahead of the start on Tuesday.