Lizards and bunting

We were woken by a coach load of elderly hikers all excitedly getting ready for their adventures, some were carrying big rucksacks. They made us feel very lazy and unfit but inspired that we could improve our health and actually be stronger as we get older too if we make the effort to exercise more. Maybe we’ll start tomorrow though 😂
After one last wander around the pretty little picnic area and a couple of coffees we set off.
The border crossing was preceded by not one, but three fuel stations one after another, reminding us that cheap fuel was a Spanish luxury we’d have to forego for now.
After a short while we were in France, hoping to find a Boulangerie and patisserie, nobody makes bread and cakes like the French. We drove through beautiful French villages in lush green countryside within the foothills of mountains, with forests that gave some relief from the heat of the day. The buildings all retained their enforced colour schemes across borders. There are lots of cyclists on all the roads right now that are probably in training for the Tour de France which is very soon. The level of fitness that they have to attain is staggering because these mountains are brutal, it’s surprising just how many extraordinarily fit people there are.
We finally reach a remote mountain village where we plan to stay, parking just in front of a large pergola that has a book exchange inside, as well as a toilet, albeit a crouch style one. Suffice to say we didn’t choose to use it as Ivy is equipped with a far more luxurious throne.
I think the village knew in advance of Bliss’s arrival as they’d got out the bunting. Bliss was happy to have a nice cool tiled floor to lie on inside the pergola and access to a river that was supplied by ice cold mountain water with that glacial blue tint to it. Unfortunately there was a lot of flies here which were irritating but in this heat they are everywhere, especially when there’s any kind of livestock. We could see from our home for the night sheep, horses and llama. On the walls of the pergola there were many small lizards who scurried away at high speed if you went anywhere near them, but there was one little guy that was very brave and actually seemed a little intrigued by us. It kept coming back and looking at us and even stayed long enough to get a photo of him. He became our pet lizard ( I named him Eddie) whilst we were there as he really seemed to quite like us and was very very cute🦎Okumaya devam et