After five beautiful days, we left Grenoble on Sunday morning, following the Isère River as we headed south to the Pyrenees. . We really loved Grenoble; this was our third visit to the city with a rich history, beautiful architecture, a young & diverse population that is surrounded by incredible peaks.
According to our Garmin GPS the drive should have only taken about six hours, but the traffic was very heavy and it took eight. Along the way we were treated to continuous sunflower fields and passed Carcassone, perhaps the best example of a walled city in France.
We arrived at the Hotel d'Angleterre around 5 pm and were greeted by our friends Bill and Rosemary. We've been planning this trip with Bill, Rosemary, and Paul and Pam Garès for over a year and it was so exciting for the six of us to finally get together in France.
Bill and Rosemary greeting us from their room at the Hotel d'Angleterre.
Looking out our front window early on Monday morning I watched the man weeding his garden.
Monday breakfast
On top of the Col d'Aspin
From the Col d'Aspin, we continued to follow the Tour's route over the Col de Tourmalet.
Descending the Col de Tourmalet, our next stop was in Luz Saint Sauveur, a village surrounding by the Pyrenees highest peaks and often visited by the Tour and cyclists of all abilities.
We ended our time in Luz with a visit to the Église des Templiers, a structure built in 11th century by the family of Saint Andre, and not by the Templars. Nevertheless, the church was beautiful and in the heat wave that we've been experiencing in France, it was a cool escape.
When we left Luz, it was 43°C, which translates to 109.4°F. As Eugene said in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blue, "it's Africa hot!"
2 comments:
Rick, your friends are distracting you. Not a single plate with luscious-looking food. Have fun - eat good food - drink good wine.
The food and wine are so good, that it's easy to forgot photographing it.
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