We have rented an apartment in Luz-Saint-Sauveur. As we found out later the apartment is located in Western Hemisphere while the local castle just a pair of km away is on the Eastern Hemisphere. Kind of Greenwich 🙂
The journey started on July 16th 2011 and we returned home on August 1st right after the midnight. Itinerary – Warsaw, Wroclaw, Dresden, then to France – Milhouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Toulouse to viaduct de Millau and Albi. Then to Pyrenees.
After the 4 hours driving the Pyrenees serpentines (there we find an interesting monument of the Tour de France), then by the the highways we arrive in Carcassonne. The city has a long history. The first populated place was created there 3500BC, but a Celtic town Carsac was a well known center of commerce 6th century BC. The romans started to erect fortifications here about 100BC, the lower part of the walls of the Carcassonne stronghold a remaining from this time. The old city (Cite de Carcassonne) is located on top of a hill inside the walls of the stronghold. The rest (Base de Carcassonne) – downhill outside the walls.
The stronghold gets visible as soon as we drive in the central part of the Carcassonne. The stronghold is very impressive – two rows of walls with 53 towers. You can get inside the walls through several gates – inside you will find old narrow streets with craftsmans and souvenir shops and cafes. We take a stroll through the streets, the cenral part of the fortifications and on the walls. Then walk to the close by pedestrians bridge accros the Aude river to take some overview shots of the stronghold.
Then we proceed to the airport. In the evening we fly to Bruxelles Charleroi airport but next morning – to Riga.
The Lescun is in the clouds again in the morning. We decide to take a chance in Spain. The closer we get to the tunnel of Somport though, worse the weather gets. Thunderclouds accumulate. We get the hint, turn back to North and drive to Oloron-St-Marie. Oloron is a largest populated place in the region and we have to drive 40km to get there. It is warm and partly sunny in Oloron. An old lady suggests that we must see the cathedral of St. Marie, which is very beautiful. We follow the advice and the lady appears to be right. After seeing the cathedral we purchase very tasty muffins and consume them sitting on a bench in front of the town hall. Afterwards we move uphill to explore the Saint Croix quarter. It has a wonderful plane tree allee that looks like tunnel instead because the branches of the plane trees forming the arch above the heads of walkers.
On a way back to Lescun we take a stop in a tiny town of Sarrences. It is located a the foot of the hill in a bent of the road. We take a look on a local church and poke our noses through the gate of the monastery. We hear the voices from inside – perhaps of the pilgrims. The route of Santyago de Compostela goes through Sarrences and the writing on the gate reads that the pilgrims are welcome (not us 🙁 ).
Finally we drive to Lescun – tomorrow morning we will start our way back home.
I wake up at 6am to catch sight of the summits of the Cirque de Lescun reddish in the beams of the rising sun. The sight is that magnificent that I hurry up to take some shots.
We have planned for today to take a route that starts in valley Aspe and ends in the neighboring valley Ossau. To do this I will walk the first section of the route with the others, then walk back and drive to the end point of the route, and then walk to meet the others. We calculate that Ilze, Benita and Imants will have to spend 8-9 hours for the route.
The route starts in Pont du Cebers. It follows the highroad then the stony path. In a quarter of hour we get to the start of the Chemin de la Mature (se more on Chemin de la Mature in a story of our previous trip). It is hot and we are wet with sweat while walking up the steep path of Chemin de la Mature. After less than hour we part and I return to the car to drive to lake Bios-Artigues in valley Ossau. The upper parking place is closed (perhaps it is full) therefore I leave the car in a stony meadow that is used here as a parking place. The meadow already has some 50 cars and the paths are full of people. Obviously the vacation time has started.
I select the route by the right side of the lake and walk uphill to Pic d’Ayous. I walk alone so I am not sure about having the right direction. I follow the path by the lakes shore for too long and hence have to return to find the right path. Then I walk uphill the forest path and arrive at the pass where I can see the summit. The itinerary book tells that I have to walk another hour to get to Pic d’Ayous. At the moment I get the message from Ilze that they are already on the summit. With some message conversation over a very poor network we agree to go downhill separately and to meet near the end of the route.
Ilze, Benita and Imants have reached the pic d’Ayous after a five hours walk at about 2pm. The height difference 1650m. The path was not particularly steep (not so steep as the pastures of the horses). On the way they met several groups of hikers, one of them being a family that have rented a donkey. The family ascended slowly and reached the pass Ayous.
The rocks here are brownish-violet, the same as near Le Pic de Gabardaille. Descending from the summit my comrades walked near the three beautiful lakes. The main summit of this part of Pyrenees – Pic du Midi D’Ossau is at our sight most of the route.
I meet the others near the end of the route.
The route to Pic de Moines (monks summit) starts in Spanish ski resort Astun near the Somport mountain pass. We spend an hour to find the start of the track. Our map should be out of the date because it does not show the route we follow.
It is sunny and hot. We ascend to the lake Escalar. There we take a short rest sitting near the lake. Then we move uphill to the Pic des Moines. The sights from the top include a number of lakes and the Pic du Midi de Ossau summit.
We decide to make the way back longer by walking the mountain ridges at the Spanish border. What looks easy from the top appears to be more complex in practice. We descend by the ridge of one hill, then ascend to the next and this repeats again and again. After a long walk our car gets into sight at last. We decide to go down straight. This endeavor turns out to be more exciting than we expected. We slither down here the grassy ground and there the stony slopes. Finally we manage to get to the mountain road and then to our car.
