Pyrenees - Renting some high end spec

If you want to be close to the monsters, Tourmalet, Aspin, Aubisque then you should be a bit further west. Velopyrenees is well into the mountains near Col de Bales. Outside the French holiday season mid Jul - August it is easy to find accommodation in small hotels, everyone likes cyclists. The regional tourist offices have all the hotel info.
I have done both versions of the Raid Pyreneen booking hotels a day in advance for a group of six, or on the fly when going solo. The touriste route with 28 cols in 10 days was the best trip ever. Choose any section of this west of Prades and you can't go wrong.
Top tip: if you stay at Hotel Tech in Arrens, eat somewhere else.

Note: the only official Raid Pyreneen is the one from Cyclo Club Béarnais Cyclotourisme you send them about £10 and a stamped (french) addressed envelope. They send you the route info and a card to be stamped at shops along the way. You also get official labels for your bike. When complete the ride you send them the card and they send you a medal.
Everything else you do yourself - you don't have to pay £100s to a poncey tour operator who will rush you to their schedule and and find the worst food along the way. The Cyclo Club Bearnais have only just caught up with the 20th century, I hope they never make it to the 21st.

OK - thread dredge here. Me & the GF are going touring in the Pyrenees. The plan is Perpignan to Bayonne in 2weeks. I'm looking here for suggestions.

We've booked a B&Bs in St Laurent-de-Neste and Argeles-Gazost (nr Lourdes) to have some luxury while hitting the big cols (with the bags left behind!). But apart from that, we've not planned much yet. I quite fancy some Cathar castles at the start, having ridden through Carcassonne a few years ago and heard about all that history.

Does the LFGSS collective have any good suggestions of places and rides?

In particular, does anyone know which (if any) cols are passable laden without wanting to lie down at the side of the road and die? (The aforementioned noble, Rapha-esque suffering I can live with.) We both have decent bikes with a spinney enough granny gear to make it up the vicious hills in the far North of Scotland, but they are short and we could rest on the downs....

The place we ended up staying, Velopyrenees was great, big home cooked meals and lovely place to stay. They were a bit particular about mess but otherwise lovely.

The engineering of the Pyrenees roads means that with sensible gearing you can make it over all but the biggest cols laden. Unlike the UK hills which ramp up fast and finish quickly, most of the inclines in the Pyrenees are < 8% all the way up.

The descent on Superbagneres was a particular favourite, the road is a dead end at a ski resort so no through traffic and the surfaces is amazing.

Tourmalet is a must, cycling past the point at which a ski resort finishes and going on for another few km is pretty special.

Thanks for the info. That Velopyrenees place looks good but it's very near one of the places we've booked already.

Also, we are thinking about nipping into Spain on the Western part of the trip. Does anyone have any suggestions of places to visit/rides to do or avoid etc?

Was figuring out what to do with I and my Dad's plan of doing the Raid Pyreneen in 5 days instead of 10 in 2013, this topic is hugely useful.

Charlie, and IdealStandard's post regarding Velopyrenees sound highly recommended, although I'll look into doing it solo (without support), and see if it's worth it or not.

Good thing my custom bike will be finished by then, and my dad's custom will (hopefully) stay in one piece.

Start in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foix and ride to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Roquefixade

the village has a bar and is ultra lovely. [there is also a guitarist there who plays Saxon covers]

and then on to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Monts%C3%A9gur

of course! and you must sing the song and pay hommage to the 700 who burned.

after that, round to my mate Didier for an A'pero!

there are also some very amazing things in the Ariege [where I lived for 5 years] which are way off the UK touriste radar.

route: Les Forges De La Pyrenees [really great ride all the way to Barcelona if you have a care on the old road] all the way to the divey jazz bar.