Into Spain

Moved on from Nimes on Saturday and went to a nice rural camp site on the edge of Toulouse as we want to avoid repeating last years journey down eastern Spain. So we are aiming at a central Pyrennes cossing after a couple of night here and in the mountains.
On Sunday we went into Toulouse to look around and found two very fascinating but different attractions. Firstly, we followed the brown signs from the car park "Victor Hugo" - why don't we name our car parks like that? - and went to Basilique de St Sernin. One of the local delights it became famous as a stop on the pilgrim trail to Compostela. As a result it built up one of the largest collections on holy remains and today displays them in the crypt and all over the cathedral. It claims to have bits of almost every saint you could think of and several you've never heard of. It does include a number which even the Catholic Church has "deregistered" or whatever they do to saints who are no longer thought valid. This includes poor old St Christopher but the church here stills keeps his bit, probably in the huge reliquary marked "Other saints". Still if you want to see saints teeth and bones in ornamental glass cases this is the place to come.
The other delight was found in the Place du Capitole after walking along the Rue du Taur, which is probably "student central" or Toulouses' answer to the Byres Road of my student days. The Capitole is Toulose Town Hall only it is the biggest I have ever seen. It in certainly bigger than the old GLC, Manchester,Glasgow or Munich. And as it was Sunday it was open to the public to wander into some of the ceremonial rooms. It is a wonderful piece of 19th century civic pride and belief. The walls and ceilings are adorned with paintings on a heroic scale. Pictures in one room all in the impressionist style but on a huge scale and in another naked women cavort as the backdrop to the former marriage room. The knowing looks on some of the paintings must have some couples food for thought.The room they use for civic functions and marriages now is huge and richly decorated with pictures and carvings. They have a guide in full colour and it really is good and it was all free so well done Toulouse. Unlike Preston they are proud of their aircraft industry as you can buy airbus shaped postcards everywhere. I did think local government in Britain could learn from Toulouse and believe it had relevance to everyone and was more than just a burden.

Monday moved into the High Pyrennnes and it got gloomy and wet. Still found a campsite that was open if a little close to Lourdes! which will invite Lynda's curiosity. After a damp night it opened dry so we did bits of house keeping and after lunch we went to see Lourdes. Almost 50 years ago I came here as a good catholic schoolboy and left ever so slightly damaged and on the way to being a sceptic. Since then it has not improved. The site itself has dispensed with the collection of crutches, sticks and wheelchairs that used to adorn the cave entrance. And it had the air of Blackpool out of season. The main items open but all the surrounding shops were half closed. Still people from Spain, Poland, Ireland and France as well as undefined nationalities were there but in small numbers. It once more proved Clarksons' theory that the best place for tacky souvenirs is near a Catholic shrine. We finally settled on a "snowdome" with glitter for snow and a luminous Virgin and Bernadette. But neither of us suffered a (re)conversion. It still irks me and feels like its trading on peoples hopes and fears. Still everyone to their own.

Next day dawned rainy and damp so we packed up and debated which way to go. We decided eventually to stick with plan A and cross the Pyrennes by the Bielsa tunnel. It was a really spectacular run up the valley on the French side as the road got narrower but passing occasional HGVs so we stopped off to buy lunch in the new Carrefour at St Lary Soulan and had a picnic in the layby down the road. All this "easy" driving ended with about 3 miles of 1 in 10 slopes with regular hairpins and every so often my passenger swallowing hard at the drops on her side with minimal protection - no armco or any other barrier for that matter. Then we came to the tunnel - 3 kms long and as an "honorary" HGV we had priority for 10 mins maximum as opposed to trucks from Spain. Luckily it was a downhill run and very straight but narrow. The Spanish clearly think more of this crossing than the French as the road on their side was wider and in better condition. Still we failed to notice the crowds of "day trippers from France" mentioned in the Rough Guide.
We found our new site 2 kms from Ainsa and in a spectacular location.( See my facebook pages for the photos)

Next morning broke clear and bright - well it is Spain - if a little cool but as we are at nearly 1500 feet it should be expected. Still the showers are heated and very hot. But as soon as breakfast was over the local show started . First an inspection from a Red Kite and then dozens of vultures circling above the valley. Poor Max was spending a lot of time looking up! we decided to deal with little details like filling the water tank and emptying the other tanks ( my favourite job). Then we took a drive into the Parque Nacional de Ordesa. This is really spectacular country ( see the photos elsewhere). We walked one of simple short trips around the Canon de Aniscio at some 3000 ft plus. It was cold but not that cold we did not enjoy the views and the constant procession of vultures, kites and possibly eagles as well as the river and trees putting in a good case for mountainous Spain. All this less than 200 miles from Barcelona. Maybe people have got their priorities a little wrong as we are great fans of wild Spain which is severly underrated. A quick look at Ainsa on the way back tempts us to stay one more night.