30th October........we're 134 today! (and a few pics of St Bertrand de Cumminges)

Happy birthday to me (56) Katy (49) and Lewis (29) today!!!

Stayed in Montrejeau on the 29th and used this as the base camp for our cycle trip so the hill top village of St Bertrand de Cummings.  The sun was out, the sky was blue and most of the time it was warm enough for t-shirts when not on the bikes.  The ride was lovely and the countryside here is very 'French rustic' with lovely old barns and houses etc.  The hill top village has a famous cathedral which overlooks the surrounding area.  The village is built on the remains of a former Roman Town and many of the remains are openly visible today.

After our 'grand day out' we set off for St Girons about 38 miles away.  Imagine the shock when we arrived to discover the aire and the car park was FULL of Gypsy travellers!!  So we decided to go back the way we came to another aire 18 miles away (!) when 3 miles down the road we saw a France Passion sign for free parking! (remember we are paid up members?) so we pulled in and got ready for our birthday meal.

Whilst Kate was preparing this I walked around the farm to find the owner but to no avail.  What I DID find however was a lovely old Manor house and some scary barns that looked like something out of 'Bleak House meets Hollywood Horror movie'!

Anyway, we had a lovely meal with salmon, blini's, fish roe and 2 big fat entrecôte steaks! followed by Pyrenean blue goats cheese,  all washed down with a bottle of local white and a bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pape (yeah, we did push the boat out on that one!)

We had a fantastic day, spoke to Lewis on Skype (sorry Poddy, couldn't get hold of you!) rang our mothers before we got too drunk (I think) and fell into bed into deep sleep (well I did, Kate apparently helped the washing up fairies first but I was in a coma by then!)

Woke up with a little hangover to find the van covered in frost!

St Bertrand de Cumminges

What a lovely old barn!

The village 'square' below the village!

Nice post office in the 'top village'

Village 'square' from above

A Roman ruin Foon!

The view from our van on Wednesday morning (first snowfall in the mountains)

Our birthday 'Hammer house of horror' night stop

Scary barn

'Bleak House'

We're Mountain Climbers now!

After the gale force wind fiasco of last night we decided to make our way to the top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre.  The weather was fantastic, blue sky and pleasantly warm (until we got to the top where it was a bit chilly!)

The climb was steep and we do wonder if we should have been better equipped as we had no crampons, ropes, or mountain climbing kit.  Still, we got to the top and it was well worth it.  At the top is the French observatory which has viewing platforms for the general public to enjoy the panorama.  At this altitude (approx 9500ft) the air is quite thin and we had to work harder and slow down in order to get to the top

Kate picking her way to the top...

Closely followed by me (it's flippin steep)

The views justify the use of 'Awesome!' as a descriptor

Kate made me do it!

Ok ok, the top two photos were staged! we really only had to walk along this track...

When we arrived back at the van (the whole trip up and down took 5 hours) we found Wolfy slowly being enveloped by cloud. 

The forecast was then for snow, so we decided to drive down the other side of the pass to a lower level.  This turned out to be a slow crawling drive for 13 miles in dense fog (well, cloud really) and eventually we arrived at our next aire just before dark.....what an eventful day!

Mon Dieu! It was windy last night!

As the sun set and the wind died away we were looking forward to a nice quiet night half way up a mountain............WRONG WRONG WRONG!  Somewhere after midnight the wind got up, I don't just mean windy...........I mean REALLY REALLY windy.  The van was rocking from side to side and we were being battered by gale force wind and high speed sand and grit blasting!  It got so bad that at 4:30 this morning we got up and drove down the mountain pass to La Mongie and parked up in an empty ski car park and went back to bed (only 40mph winds down there but at least no sandblasting!)

In the morning we woke up in an empty car park to clear blue sky..........so we drove back up to the top!

The view last night as the sun set

And our 'safe haven' that we woke up to this morning

I thought the last mountain pass was steep! (Tourmalet, Pic du midi)

Well, what can I say?  This one knocked the others into a cocked hat!  We left Garvanie this morning and descended to 3400ft then turned right a few miles later to drive up this one...........it reaches nearly 7000 (YES SEVEN THOUSAND FEET!) and near the top the roads are really tight hairpin bends and zig zag all the way over the top.   There are NO safety barriers so whilst Kate was enjoying the view (OK, she had her eyes shut most of the time!) I was keeping my eyes firmly on the road ahead.

When we got to the top there was a big car park (which we are are in right now and will stay at overnight) so we pulled in for lunch.  Having had a quick recce we have discovered a track that walkers take to the top of Pic du Midi de Bigorre so tomorrow morning we are walking to the top.........that will be 2877 metres or 9495 feet above sea level................a nice easy one then!

A plaque showing the heights from the car park

The French Observatoire at the top

The 'other' car park on the North side (you would not want to slip your foot of the clutch here!)

The mountain pass we drove up to get here

Cirque de Garvanie...........it's BIG!

The Cirque de Gavarnie is a massive mountain amphitheatre in the mid Pyrenees, sliced through by thunderous waterfalls and ringed by sawtooth peaks.  Many of these peaks are over 10000ft (5 x height of Eiffel Tower).

We parked in the village carpark where we stayed overnight then walked the 2 hour route to the base of the waterfall.  The waterfall is the highest in France and one of the biggests falls in Europe (over 1300 feet drop).  During winter the waterfall freezes solid and is climbed by 'ice climbers'.

The sheer scale of this mountain range can not really be appreciated in the photo's, trust me, it's massive!

As we were on a 'fasting day' this day we woke up the following morning at about 03:00 (or was it 02:00? the clocks had just changed from summertime!) so had a feast of porridge and tea then back to sleep.  Still hungry at breakfast time we walked to the local boulangerie and bought 2 lovely (still warm) baguettes, one white and one wholemeal with cereal.  The baker was a portly chap and one of the happiest and jolliest bakers we have yet met, his bread was quite fantastic (C'est Formidable!).

I am beginning to wonder if I am addicted to fooning! either that or I just can not take myself seriously! (really, you are not seeing the amount of 'foon foto's' that get taken!).

We started the walk here (it doesn't look too big or too far from here!)

The waterfall from afar

Me and Kate at 'base camp' just before the final push

Kate looking happy at reaching the waterfall !

Oh, and this is where we stayed the night

A Spanish Bridge, a lake, and a waterfall

We drove from Lourdes up to the main car park for the 'Pont d'Espagne' ready for the next morning.  Remember an earlier post when I said how steep could a mountain pass be???  Well now I know.........really really steep!  The road from Cauterets to the top was steep, winding. and closed until 18:00!  We had to wait for it to be reopened due to major repairs etc............Mon Dieu! it resembled an off road tank training route!

Anyway, we got there just before dark do discover a sign saying 'no overnight camping in camper cars'........... ah well, just have to claim being British we could not read the sign!

Woke up in the morning after rain all night.........we had not been told off by the 'no parking police' and so we walked up to the Lac De Gaube which sits below a Glacier.  This took around 3 hours and again we found ourselves above 6000ft above sea level.  The weather was windy and overcast but quite mild.  
On the way down we looked at the waterfalls by the 'Spanish Bridge'.  Then into Cauterets for a look around.

The 'Spanish Bridge'

Kate is the little tiny blob in the bottom at the bottom right of the photo!

A bridge foon!

Lac de Gaube (with the glacier behind)

The glacier close up

Cauterets 

Lourdes

We visited Lourdes on Thursday (24th)............I had a little tummy ache when I arrived and was not religious.............after the visit I still had tummy ache and was still not religious! (sorry).

However....... Lourdes was a very interesting place to see.  The whole town is (clearly) centred around religion and is considered to be the most Holy Catholic place in the world!

Whilst we did not have any epiphany type moments one could not help but be impressed by the overwhelming sense of beliefand religion that filled the air.

Lourdes Notre Dame

The 'Grotto' under the Notre Dame 'where it all happened'

Where do Nuns go shopping? ....... a tacky Lourdes shop of course!

The view from above the Basilica towards the town

I was in the High Street so not 'irreverent'

Mountain walking in the Pyrenees

What a treat we had today (Wednesday 23rd).  The weather turned out to be lovely and sunny (did I tell you we had rain yesterday?) so we parked the van at the official carpark and went on the 'Tours des Lacs d'Aysous' which took us just under 6 hours.  We took a couple of wrong turnings (!) but got round the walk in the end.  The views were quite fantastic (stunning actually) and we ended up nearly 7000 feet above sea level having started at 4400 feet.  My goodness, what a day!

Then after that we drove just a couple of miles down the road and 'wild camped' in a quiet tree covered spot just of the road by the river (this too was black black black! at night time

I should add that I baked some bread again this morning…..the Frenchies need to start worrying! I'm good!

The mountain on the right is 9500 ft high!

Half way up the mountain there are mixed forests

Ooh. a serious look for a change!

I have the power! I can foon through a mountain!

Last nights night stop