Plenty of snow - no snow bunnies

 Wednesday 17th May

Time to head back to France. We stayed one night in Villanuva in a lovely hostel in this tiny village. Only one place to eat last night, and only pizza, but it was very nice and a nice atmosphere.

Our hostel in Villanuva. This is only about 10k from the nearest ski fields. 

Headed up the main highway less than 10k to the town of Canfranc to visit the station. We had seen this on a Michael Portillo train journey show. The station had been abandoned but was bought by a hotel group and opened early this year as a luxury hotel. Apart from the building and wandering around the old rail yards you only get to see the hotel lobby, which used to be the ticket hall.

What a backdrop.

This would be an amazing place to stay with stunning scenery
- probably a once in a lifetime event.

The hotel lobby - as far as an empty wallet will allow.

Continued heading up the valley towards France through some spectacular scenery. Stupendous. Photos probably won't do it justice. Took a detour to the village of Lescun 5k up the side of the mountain. More stunning views and saw a number of griffon vultures cruising around, which are an endangered species.

Breathtaking!

Griffon vulture. 

Just stopped the car in the middle of the road for a few photos.

From here it was onwards to Pau where we are staying for the next week.

Thursday 18th May

Very comfortable here in our apartment hotel. Had a cultural visit to the supermarket last night for dinner and breakfast provisions. There is so much choice it takes forever to shop for just a few things. 

This morning started with a visit to the tourist information office. Getting to the supermarket last night the traffic was bedlam but this morning there was almost no traffic. We found when we got to the office that today is a bank holiday. Aha! Weve fallen foul of these in past visits - nothing is open. 

There is a classic grand Prix event on here over the weekend. We tried looking it up online with little success, but the lady at the tourist office was able to give us all the information we needed.  She also gave us the rundown on what else to see.

Today we've just been out for a drive and a look around, had lunch, and now back home ready for a rest. Dinner out tonight as we weren't able to supermarket shop.

Visiting the tiny village of Lescar, where a first communion was just finishing. There were great views across to the Pyrenees from here but they are a distance away and the clouds on top made it hard to get a clear photo.

Friends.

Roundabout art. The river running through Navarrenx is the d'Oloron
which is the longest salmon river in France. 

This town is also on the Camino de Santiago.

Bridge in Navarrenx from 14th century. 

Entrance and remparts to Navarrenx.

Tomorrow Rob is going to the grand Prix event and I will have a day of r and r, and maybe do the laundry if I feel so inclined.