In Haro on Saturday lunchtime the whole population seems to come out at lunchtime to enjoy a drink and tapas. Old ladies, old geezers in flat caps and cardigans,kids,babies in pushchairs and us of course.
The idea is that you call at a bar for a small glass of Rioja, reserva or crianza and a tasty morsel or two. Once you have finished you move on to the next bar and repeat the exercise. This is one of the smarter looking places.
We moved down south of Lourdes last weekend and into the mountains.We visited the Col de Tourmalet which was just over 20 miles from the campsite, almost all uphill and very bendy in parts - including some scary hairpin bends. This is part of the mountain route of the Tour de France and there were several cyclists doing the climb which is much steeper than it looks on the TV, Going up must be knackering, and going down would be terrifying. The road on the way up has permanent messages to the cyclists and as we got higher there were patterns on the road that looked like sperm - maybe an incentive to the blokes cycling up the last few hundred metres. Stunning views from 2115m, and some good birds –there were Griffon Vultures circling, several Alpine Choughs, a Kestrel and a couple of what we reckon were young Rock Thrushes. By the way, we did not cycle, we took the scooter - much easier. While in the area we did the Cirque de Gavarnie which involved a very bendy (and very breezy) 25-mile scooter trip to a natural cirque where a waterfall marks the start of the River Gave. Vehicles stop at the town and you either walk or hire a horse (€25 return) or donkey. The sign said it was a one-hour walk but we reckon this is the same feller who does the ‘one-minute to Carrefour’ signs (if you have been to France you will be familiar with such misleading ads) because we walked for well over an hour (admittedly slowly, because it was uphill) and still only got to the hotel where – if you looked carefully – you could just see tiny people in the distance on the final bit to the waterfall. At this point we decided to stop for a drink and go no further. Some fine scenery en route, and it being and despite being near Lourdes (and hearing Irish accents amongst the afflicted who were doing a side-trip to the Cirque in wheelchairs) we decided not to bother. In the past we have done Fatima, Santiago de Compostella, Walsingham and Canterbury and we still haven’t won the lottery, although it may not help that we haven't bought a ticket recently. Ainsa We left France on Wednesday (after a very rainy night when earplugs were deployed) and did the 150-mile trip to Boltaña in Spain, taking the long – less bendy D roads – route which involved a 7km tunnel through the Pyrenees (thankfully free) but still ending on a very narrow and mountainous 40km section with snow-covered mountains in the distance. It was only when we looked carefully at the map that we realised that we are only about 50km from the Cirque we visited earlier this week. We are staying at Camping Boltaña where we are enjoying the first free wifi of our trip, we do have to go up to reception to enjoy wifi but it’s a good signal andwe have been able to download the paper onto the iPads quite quickly. Today we revisited Ainsa – part of which was an old Moorish fort – in beautiful weather (but chilly to start with) which was as splendid as we remembered from a couple of years ago. And we did a good deed by rescuing a couple from the Bell Tower. They had gone in with a bunch of French tourists for whom the tower had been specially opened, but then got left behind when the French departed, not realising that the door and gate were being locked behind them. We looked through the gate and heard knocking and spoke to a workman who then fetched the key-holder from the ayuntamento. The couple did not perhaps realise how lucky they were – the tower is normally only open on weekends and their knocking would not have been heard unless you were right at the gate. They would have been a touch peckish by Saturday. He had a good reservoir of lard to keep him going but she was skinny.
We are in Puy en Velay and find ourselves in the middle of a fete where most people are dressed in medieval fashion and where there are lots of events and street theatre. It is all very entertaining and a surprise for us as we usually find that we are travelling out of season and nothing much going on. This event is in its 27th year and so much of a draw that the campsite is full and we are wild camping in a car park with many other motor homes and learner motorcyclists who are slaloming around cones - reminding Gilroy of the many happy hours he spent this summer doing precisely the same thing .
We will be walking into town later today to watch more activities and take loads of pix so will report on this again.
We spent a couple of nights near Beaune so we could visit the hospice de Beaune with its beautiful burgundy tiled roof. We found this fellow on the wheel of our scooter trailer so had to move him first.
We are now on an aire at St Gengoux de National and hoping to visit Cluny when it stops raining. Cluny was once very powerful monastery with abbot nearly as powerful as the pope. Come the revolution they were near top of list so only ruins remain now.
... and none at home either we understand. Still at Langres and sitting on the terrace where we can get a good signal. We paid €2 for unlimited Internet (Caravan Club take note) here so can still download the paper each morning.
Yesterday we went into Langres which is a very old town with a complete city wall around which we strolled,only to get a very strong sense of deja vu. We realised that we had stopped here some five years ago when we last came to Burgundy, not sure if this means we have done too much travelling or whether this is the first sign of senile dementia. |
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November 2012
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