Noodles

I did a trip in June this year, down to Santander 1- way and Chunnell return (always have a cabin though if you can stetch to it ... so much better) and I then did the fairly short trip over to the French side to a nice town called Pau (about 160 miles) and then the day after to an even nicer place called Albi (about another 170 miles) ... I did this leg via sat nav and avoiding tolls and motorways and it was fantastic, lovely roads with the snow capped Pyrinees as the back drop and Albi is very nice. I then legged it down to Sth of France so not relevent for you ... however on your way back to Northern France try and slip Troyes in there as its a really nice town. My only other advice is whilst camping is ok its also a right faff and even more so if its very hot ... I did two weeks and all on airbnb and never paid more than £30 and met some lovely people along the way. I did a couple of long days i.e. 500 miles but they were not the enjoyable days as much as when it was less than 300 with nice coffee stops along the way. I have also done Pamplona, a place called Burgos and also a place called Salamanca whist in Spain on other trips but that was always having the ferry return so giving more time for hanging around the great roads of Picos. I think many of us have made mistakes by trying to cram to many miles and places into too shorter time ... but its all fun, now if its lots of places then its lots of holidays booked, short on time then I do fewer miles but spend longer in fewer places if that makes sense? Whatever you do you will have a blast ... makes me itchy to go again just reading this thread haha!