Blogs from Ariege, Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe

Days three and four Day three began sloooowly, but early. The worlds loudest rooster seems to be stationed outside our window. That was lovely especially when another rooster started playing call and response...... After a late leisurely brekkie we headed up the road to the parc prehistorique. It was awesome, perfect weather, perfect views, loads to do, being attacked by man eating butterflies, seeing all the wildlife and dodging wasps (I may not have mentioned but I got stung on the neck......) Despite Seth's desperation to get home to unearth his new fossils from his gift shop purchase I bought everything in the supermarket on the way back, except fly catcher things, something I now regret, having said how few flies there were that seems to have been their call to arms and there are now ... read more

Yesterday was activity central. Up and at em, we headed back to the forest for climbing. Not me (clearly)..... We headed there and despite having gone this way several times this week, Ash took us on a wrong way journey (briefly) so instead of Ash climbing and me supervising Seth we both supervised Seth. (not entirely sure if this was planned by Ash to get out of having to climb the scary trees) so we queued up, expecting to pay but no, they just harnessed Seth and in we went. Safe to say he loved it, big smiles all the way round and no desire to leave despite his tired legs! In the end though the cafe called and we left expecting to pay but, nope still not. Ice cream and a cuppa (and a very ... read more

Friday was hot, really hot so we went somewhere higher and therefore cooler, Andorra. With my usually grest sense of direction and my genius, knows a lot of geography, brother, we should have got to where we were going easily, especially as we had all been to the place we were going to before. This didn't happen. We spent ten quid going both ways through a tunnel which we didn't even need to go through and only realised we weren't on the cable car we thought we were until we got to the top and couldn't go any further. The baby enjoyed the ride though and to be fair, the assortment of activities on offer up there were good to watch (my mini meltdown when the cable car stopped and swung perilously on the way up ... read more

Today was the day of sausage, cheese, life size plastic animals, discounted booze and mountains. That's probably all I need to say but I think we all need to understand how we came to be sitting on a plastic unicorn holding a giant tomato being watched by a pig and a blues brother without being stoned. After a lovely leisurely breakfast we set off up the mountains for Andorra to visit the adults playground that is their tax free shops. The low cloud on the way up made for a slightly scary drive ( in a car not Jason, he's had a nice rest today) but through a tunnel and it was bright and lovely. I couldn't tell you the town this shopping mecca was in nor could I tell you the name of the shop ... read more

After departing the lovely La Ferme de la Rose, we decided to spend a few days in Carcassone en route to our next HelpX in the Pyrenees. Carcassone is a walled medieval city, dating back over 1000 years. The wall used to encompass the city back in the day, but now mainly houses restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops. All of the medieval-themed touristy shops are a bit tacky and tiresome after a while, but it was amazing to picture how the city would have looked back in its hey-day hundreds of years ago. We also enjoyed the abundance of restaurants in the area, trying the local speciality of duck and pork cassoulet! It was a lovely way to spend a weekend! Our next stay is in a town called Argein, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. ... read more