We've grown pretty close to our neighbours in no.7 right beside us, and frequently meet up for a coffee, dinner, and even family events - the latest being the wedding of their son Robin to Julie in Toulouse. The date fell right in the middle of the holidays, so we decided to take the opportunity to stay in the south and visit the Pyrénées, a place I've always wanted to go, and I wasn't disappointed.
But first, the wedding.
A new age man always makes sure he has his handbag with him.
And here we are, all in flat shoes, as were 90% of everyone else. I only wore flats as my dress kept sticking to my tights which made it very short, and wearing a heel with all that leg seemed a bit inappropriate. But the majority of boys - and girls - were in white converse trainers. They be crazy in the south.
Anyway, after a fantastic celebration with the kids dancing with us until way past midnight (Fingerling is an extremely good dancer and it was a delight to whoop around the dance floor with both girls) we spent the following day at the City of Space Museum in Toulouse. We particularly enjoyed the Asteroid Hunters 3D film which had amazing graphics and plenty of assurance that we wouldn't be hit in our lifetimes (but almost certainly eventually).
And having fully recovered from a weekend of so.much.fun, we took the kids up into the wilds of the High Pyrénées to remind them of everything they don't like about the mountains. Just kidding! They did it. And that's the important thing. But there was a bit of moaning to be managed on the way.
Anyway, first day it was the Cirque de Gavarnie, which was described by Victor Hugo as nature's colosseum due to it's 1500m high rock walls that surround the circle, accessed via a narrow path. It is 3000m wide at the rim and 800m on the floor and was formed through glacial erosion, leaving stunning scenery.
Unfortunately it began to blow a gale with rain when we reached the Cirque (a further hour onwards), otherwise we might have ended up walking up to the 450m waterfall - the second highest in Europe.
When the weather started closing in...
Nothing more motivating on a walk than following a nice bottom.
The next day was weirdly warm - temperatures in the low twenties in Toulouse and although cooler in the mountains, the sun was really strong. We drove up to the Col de Tourmalet, well known thanks to the Tour de France which regularly tops it at 2115m. Really quite an ascent.
From there you can take the cable car to the Pic du Midi, an observatory at the top, or you can walk up. The cable car is €49 per adult and the walk is 7km with a height gain of 800m...all in the last mile. We decided to do the walk as the weather was stunning, the scenery amazing, and everyone well equipped with lunch (forgot the sweets though).
The first 4-5km: all good. A long, gentle slope with amazing views.
And then we saw what looked like a vertical rock wall with a zig-zagging path all the way up to the Observatory.
The kids did it. We stopped half way for lunch and the final 500m were hard going...there was shingle instead of a path, it was a steep, there was more wind (although still gorgeous) and crevette needed carried a little to regain some energy.
But we finally made it, in 3 hours (so about 45mins longer than what the guide book said for normal walking pace).
Above the clouds:
Made it!
I was so proud of them. So proud in fact that we'd made it at all, that I let them each have a coke. I stand by the fact that we were all a bit dehydrated having not counted on it being such glorious sunshine. We looked around the Observatory museum which was fascinating, and learned about its history as well as the research that goes on there now, and how light pollution can be a big obstacle for this kind of research.
And the kids got in for free because the guides were so impressed the kids had walked up. But we know our limits and took the cable car back down in the late afternoon light, descending through the clouds and into thick fog at the bottom.
But our car was still at the Col de Tourmalet, so El Puma did his SuperDad thing and started walking the 5km back up to the Col until he got picked up by a passing car and driven the last few kms. What a hero.
The next day we took things a little easier and visited Lourdes, a place I've always wanted to visit for some reason. To be fair, it was a little disappointing - commercialised Catholicism I guess, but interesting to see.
And from there we drove the final stretch to say goodbye to En Pauliac, our wedding party venue from back in 2013. Genevieve, who so kindly offered it to us then, has sold up. Although it crossed our minds at one point to buy it, it comes with so many buildings and land that it was out of our league, and indeed she has sold to an architect who will transform it.
Many happy memories and the lightshow brought by the setting sun was a fitting goodbye.
I'm sure we can find somewhere else for our next party ;-)
