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- Dag 12
- lördag 5 juli 2025 11:57
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Höjd över havet: 1 164 m
FrankrikeLescun42°56’33” N 0°37’46” W
Day 12 - Hiking in the Pyrénées
I går, Frankrike ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
I was awoken at 5am by Jackie informing me that it was raining. Thank you for that information! I dozed listening to the rain until 6.30am, when the rain subsided and I needed a wee. When I got up I discovered that rain gets through just a mesh door and we had puddles in the tent amongst all our electricals. We had also left the camp chairs etc out overnight.
Instead of going back to bed, I continued researching cheap campsites along the south west coast of France. Jackie managed to surface at 8.05am, then spent the following hour beautifying herself. The biggest drama of the morning was searching first the tent, then the car and finally the whole campsite for her sunglasses. The ridiculous thing about this whole episode is that Jackie never wears her sunglasses as sunglasses, but more as a glorified alice-band. We set off at 9.10am, ten minutes later than my itinerary read.
It was a 36 mile (one hour) drive south to the Pyrenean village of Lescun. It was a pleasant journey, with just a short 10 minute uphill hairpin drive to the village of Lescun which is perched at an altitude of 900 metres. We got lucky and found a free parking space in the village centre as soon as we arrived.
After parking up, we donned our walking boots, trainers and rucksacks then headed to the start of a hike on my AllTrails App. Jackie will kill me for saying this, but for some reason she went commando in her Navratilova’s Mk 2.
Our route I had selected was a listed as a 2.7 mile moderate hike around a circular route up and down a mountain. It was a cool start, but as soon as we ‘Buster Shuffle’ (I’m not going to explain) and started climbing the clouds disappeared and we were under the beating sun.
A French trio of a similar age were just ahead of us and we caught up and chatted with them every time they took a rest break. The man and two women were very lovely and chatty.
The hike was an absolute delight with stunning scenery at every turn with huge birds of prey soaring above and below. My best guess (as a young ornithologist) is that they were Eurasian Griffin Vultures. Butterflies were everywhere, but sadly so were the French cousins of our horseflies, which feasted on our sweat sodden bodies.
The hike was recorded as 3.1 miles long, with an elevation gain of 1,115ft and took us a total of 2 hours 28 minutes, but in our defence we stopped for ages trying to get a decent photo of the vultures and butterflies. I failed.
I could describe the hike in more detail, but hopefully my photos tell the story!!!
We arrived back in Lescun just after 1pm dripping with sweat from head to toe. We identified the restaurant of our choice then returned to the car to change out of our sodden clothes….well I did.
We returned our chosen lunch stop, Hotel Du Pic D’anie and sat down at an outside table in the square. There were two restaurants in the village square both with outside tables occupied by fellow hikers, including our French trio, but the village surprisingly could not be in any way described as busy.
We ordered 2 very well earned large draught beers, then an omelette dish and a tart dish. The very likeable waiter later brought out 2 omelette dishes. When I corrected him, he was so so apologetic and offered to give me a free beer to compensate whilst they freshly cooked my tart.
The food was delicious, homemade and with locally sourced ingredients. It was all very lovely and went down well with a 2nd large beer each.
For dessert, I ordered a cheesecake that wasn’t a cheesecake, but contained locally produced cheese, which was the waiter’s particular preference.
When we went to pay, the friendly waiter who had already knocked off for the lunchtime shift had left instructions not to charge me for the dessert. How very nice!
We drove back to camp via an Intermarché Supermarket and bought more provisions, mainly wine and sweets.
We returned to camp and to our horror discovered that we had 2 new vehicles as neighbours. The 1st occupants we saw were 2 lookalike ‘Onslow’ brothers in white vests drinking beer.
One of their vehicles was a traditional mobile home, but the other brother had a transit van with a double bed on a raised shelf in the back. It was then that it was confirmed to us that these were true ‘pikeys’. And we know this from firsthand knowledge of such a vehicle!
It was 32*C with very little shade back at our pitch, so we headed to the pool. We were enjoying the relative peace when the Englishman who had the pool outburst the previous evening arrived.
He was fantastic entertainment for all the wrong reasons. He is a deaf northerner with a dour accent who talks loudly and incessantly.
His wife commenced lengths of the pool whilst he crept in with a pool noodle under his armpits. He clearly can’t swim, so treads water up and down the pool.
Every time his wife got anywhere within earshot he would bellow questions at his swimming wife or just relate stories at her.
Both Jackie and I strained our ears over the general pool hub-bub to hear what he was loudly saying, but it was difficult. Then all of a sudden it went quiet and we both astonished to him him bellow “…She is not really bothered. Just like you and sex”. His wife just swam off.
Soon after, a brother and sister, probably 6 - 8 years old, arrived at the pool whilst their parents watched from an outside table. The siblings were jumping in and out of the water, when suddenly old misery guts referring to the kids shouted to his wife, “F@cking retards can’t read the signs”.
He constantly returned to the theme that people couldn’t read the pool signs. I was biding my time to jump down his throat and tell him he was the f…ing retard for wearing his flip-flops around the pool. Everyone else left their footwear outside the pool and walked through the foot bath as per the sign!
He and his wife departed sometime later and he then found another English couple to rant and rave about the pool rules not being complied with. He was still going when we left the pool area 30 minutes later.
That evening Jackie knocked up a delicious hot and spicy arrabbiata penne pasta on our new snazzy cooker. We had a house music concert in the distance as a musical accompaniment to our dinner.
Receptionist Lydia had told us about the concert, which was free, but we had forgotten about it. We could have been tempted to go. It sounded quite good.
Song of the Day - Mountain at My Gates by Foals.Läs mer
English Channel
ResenärStunning…..and the lunch.