Pyrénées

We got up dressed and washed before the crowd and were the first to the petit dejeuner, soon joined by Claire, Jane and Tom. Great strong coffee. We departed at 7:42 a.m. following Jane, Claire and Tom but soon caught up with them in a part of the trail which was deep in forest with limestone cliffs on both sides. This cut back to the right and rose out of the canyon on a steep forested trail. We passed them and continued uphill where the trail met a woods road. This went uphill (our first attempt), uphill to the right (our second attempt), and then we backtracked and found that it went off to the right before the road did. Here we were rejoined by the three following us.

Bon led the way up at a fast pace. We crossed several woods roads and then passed a beautiful beech tree and a trough with a statue of a monster with "La Guardian" written on it.

The trail went up the hill and was a little difficult to follow, but with beautiful views down to the southwest where we could finally see the peaks (Josef left a day too soon). We came to a place with cows and a trough and again lost the trail. Bon and I went in different directions; I was on the right path but Bon caught up quickly.

The trail bent gradually to the right around the hill where we came to a place with a jouffre or hole in the center of a big switchback of the road. I walked up the road but could not find a trail marker and so backtracked. The three following us joined us and they took the trail while we bisected the route by the jouffre which was quite deep. We did find trail markers then which led up a rocky road with long switchbacks. Tom and company passed us and I slowed due to a blister forming on a toe. At the last switch back we saw a shepherd with dogs moving sheep down the hill. Behind cows at the top emerged high rocky peaks including the Pic d'Anie which still had some snow.

The scenery suddenly changed from rolling green countryside to limestone rocks and, across a gorge, tall evergreens growing out of the limestone. We passed our shepherd (who was now looking after the cows by a manmade pond) and then cut across several switchbacks of a gravel road and on up to a little farm house where we saw our friends leaving. Cheese was sold at the farmhouse and we bought a small chevre round and a large chunk of the local Brebie cheese for 5 Euro!

Here we joined the paved road which passed limestone rock and sheep above us and a grassy limestone bowl below. At a sharp left in the road the trail went off to the northeast by some ski lift equipment and here we saw Tom, Jane and Claire eating lunch - as it was about 11:20 a.m. we continued on debating extending the day to Lescun.

We took the trail to the northeast and it passed three large round metal cylinders not unlike the Maginot Line but I believe these were water cisterns. We could see large ski condos below and our gîte, La Pierre St. Martin. We descended to it and sat down at one of the picnic tables where I took off my shoe to nurse my toe. We were joined by our host. He was clearly unhappy with our idea of proceeding on and both he and the place seemed so nice (and we wanted to remain with our crowd) so we stayed.

We got a nice room with a view and were soon joined by everyone else. Monsieur was serving everyone steak lunches which seemed delightful, but Bon and I decided to take a picnic up the slope.

Bon was tired and we quickly stopped at a rock with an overhang which gave us protection from the strong sun - it was a cloudless day. We had our usual picnic and quickly headed up the Pic d'Arlas - about 400 meters up from the gîte. We walked up a yellow path to the right of the peak and then at the top by the ski machinery we took a left and began first on grass, then a shale path which wound across the side facing the gîte, next a series of switchbacks (passing blue blue mountain gentian for the first time) and finally, at the top, just a rocky ascent. It was spectacular at the top with 360 degree views and the Pic d'Orhy which was clearly visible. We could see a shepherd below working his dogs to gather a dispersed flock and move it over to the next pasture. I also tried to use the compass to triangulate our position - not very successfully.

We had a nice walk down chatting about our future and went directly back to the gîte. There we joined Alan and another fellow who assisted me with compass triangulation. After showers and washing clothes we sat with Tom, Jane and Claire chatting about his housing which he had gotten by squatter’s rights in an empty flat. I had a wonderful amber (ambrée) Basque beer called something beltz.

At 7:30 p.m. we all headed in for diner and had another lovely time. I toasted the Brits for George III’s inept management of the colonies and the French for La Fayette's help which led to our independence 229 years ago! The host of the gîte at La Pierre St Martin made a delicious beef daube which was as plentiful as it was good. Claire said of it, “C’est tellement bon que je pourais manger (le plat) sur la tete d’un ponilleux” which roughly translates to, “It so good that I could eat it off the head of a flea-ridden dog.” A new fellow, Simon, joined us with a friend who worked for Channel 4 radio in Britain. It was a lovely evening and ended with everyone watching the European soccer final between Portugal and Greece. In spite of a loud fan for Portugal, Greece, with its iron-tight defense, won 1-0 much to the pleasure of the rest of the crowd.

To bed and a good sleep about 10:30 p.m.