The good weather of the past week encouraged us to go much further afield and when Tuesday dawned clear and sunny, we thought it was a perfect day to go to the mountains. The house we stayed in last year has a wonderful panoramic view of the Pyrenees, but the one we are in this year doesn’t so we just had to go and check that they were still there and, possibly, see some snow on the peaks. We didn’t start off all that early (surprise, surprise) and dawdled our way along the back roads to get where we were going, which was a point in the mountains called Pont d’Espagne – presumably a bridge on the border between France and Spain. Consequently we arrived, shortly before lunch-time, at a parking area close to a cable way station. Having been caught out before, we had taken all our winter and wet-weather gear with us, in spite of the hot sun when we left home. It was just as well because the temperature at the cableway station was 2 degrees and there was a fine mizzly-drizzle falling and there was mist all around. After some debate we decided to take the five-minute ride to the upper station, even if we just stayed in the cable-car and came down again. However, when we arrived at the top it seemed clearer and the drizzle had stopped so instead of staying in the car, we opted for a 300 meter walk to the café. There was lots of snow all around and it was really pretty. Plenty of people, too, with skis or proper walking boots. The café was crowded but we found a table and had a sandwich and a cup of coffee, while we enjoyed the warmth and jolly atmosphere inside, thinking that we would go and look for the bridge after we had eaten. But when we pushed open the door to leave, we were greeted by a silent white wonderland, and it was still snowing fairly hard. Luckily we managed to tag along with a fellow who seemed to be with a group of children who had been skiing, who knew the way back to the cable station. By now it was snowing heavily and we were getting quite concerned about the trip down the hill from the lower station, which is a steep zig-zag all the way down. After brushing a 2 inch layer of snow off the car, we were again lucky to have someone pull out of a space close to us, who obviously knew the way to the exit. We followed his tracks and made it safely out of the parking area and also down the hill.
By the time we got back to Espas it was again a beautiful day! Well! Well! Well! what an adventure.
On another day we thought it was more prudent to stay away from the mountains for a while and instead drove a circular route which took us out of our usual towns and villages to some we had never visited before. To those of you with maps who like to know these things, our route took us through Nogaro, Aire-sur-l’Adour, Grenade-sur-l’Adour, and St Sever to Mugron. As we so generally do, we stayed away from the main roads and detoured through all the quaint little villages off the beaten track. Our return trip came via Hagetmau, Pimbo, and Garlin, after which we cut across country and came home on an assortment of farm roads. The weather was again simply wonderful and with Spring well sprung the country side is looking it’s very best.
We keep telling each other that we will not be going into any more churches, but somehow we just can’t resist having a quick peep to see if there are any ancient stained glass windows and we are frequently rewarded. In any case the churches are often situated on the highest point in the area and have amazing panoramic views, so it is always worthwhile.
We sincerely hope that next week will be equally productive.
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