Our home exchange friends recommended a beautiful mountainside inn up in the Pyrenees close to several hikes, lots of hillside villages and most importantly, incredible views.
Our route there took us through (not around as we had hoped) Lourdes - what a commerical enterprise that town is. Catering to the pilgrims who come by the bus load to be cured. Good to view from the safety of a car....that's for sure.
Our inn (Grange aux Marmottes) was located in Viscos and was charming and cute it almost hurt. Took tons of photos, walked around the little village up and down steep stone paths and walkways. Then it started to rain, so we ducked into our miniscule room and read and napped inbetween staring at the view out our window. Dinner was included as there is nowhere else to go - and it was delicious. We ordered a full carafe of the house red wine and were both quite giggly by dessert.
We needed the laughs, as we had a flat tire earlier in the day and had a time figuring out the jack, removing the hubcaps, etc. But Ray got it all figured out and changed to the spare - lucky this car has a proper tire as a spare so we were able to continue on our way.
By the way, the inn is named after the french saying "To Sleep like a Marmot" equivalent to our "Sleep like a log". Boy did we - between the wine and the mountain air through the window- ahhhhhh.
Next morning, woke to a beautiful day, no sign of rain and after breakfast headed up the valley to the famous Cirque de Gavarnie - Took the recommended 2 hour hike up into the mountains with views of waterfalls and the peaks of the Pyrenees. At the top is a hotel where we had hot chocolate - very chilly at the top - and headed down.
Had a quick picnic lunch (meat, cheese, bread and fruit "saved" from the inn's breakfast buffett and then started exploring some of the little towns. Had read about a beekeeper who sold honey of the region, which we thought would be fun to find - and in the process discovered several charming little hillside towns where we got out and again climbed up and down steep stone paths and walkways. One of the towns we especially liked was Betpouy. Took photos and asked about the beekeeper and got instructions. Finally found the place and they had 5or 6 diff kinds of honey we bought only one sort, knowing we have to wrap it and get it back in our luggage.
Got back on the road and headed home. Tried to take the motorway back, but somehow got turned away from it so took back roads back to our home away from home. We have our Tom Tom with us but she got confused several times too.
Back now to figure out getting the flat tire fixed and or replaced....yikes!
