We have looked forward to our postponed day trip to sunny Spain for a week. Patrick and Laura are coming to pick Marc, Milou and I up at ten thirty this morning. Milou has only met Dodie and Charlie once, but as she better with animals than she is humans, i hoped it would be ok.
The morning is not pretty, in fact it is raining heavily and cold into the bargain...perhaps not a good day
undeterred they are on our doorstop at precisely ten thirty, after a brief grr from charlie they all three settle in the back. However we have not been travelling long when Milou decides she would rather be in the back, plush leather seats with Laura and I....perhaps a little nervous of the overall game plan.
The drive down, took a couple of hours, with a stop for us and the dogs, for all of us to stretch our legs. Our stop pictured above was a pretty lake, now out of season quiet and in February, not so in the summer, with all the water activities including rafting, barbecues and a small restaurant.
Ideal journey for me, no precipitous high roads, in fact we followed a river down le garonne/ la garona on the Spanish side. You would not particularly know other than the splendid scenery that you were crossing the Pyrenees. There are a few police near the border, they were watching cars through, but very few were being stopped.
In Spain there is lots of snow, although cold, it is the mountains, it is also very bright and sunny.
We travel through towns that are popular supermarket stops for both french and ex-pats alike.
We arrive in a small town just past Vielha called Arties complete with a live brown bear (caged of course) next to the car park, he she appears to be alone. National park surrounds the border on both the Spanish and french side, brown bears once native in the Pyrenees, but wiped out through hunting. The bears were introduced again amidst huge controversy between french government and the farmers and shepherds as they were used to grazing their sheep on high ground....and to add insult to injury the bears were not even french, they were Slovenian.
Milou gets her first taste of snow, while Dodie is really revelling in it and a rolling about in it.
We had lunch, tapas in the restaurant above, because it was a nice day we were able to tie the dogs outside. Considering the damage Milou has done to our car, i did not want anything to happen to theirs and there was no grill to stop her from jumping all over the car.
The tapas was tasty and we spent an enjoyable few hours eating and drinking. I chose the wine it was the first Spanish wine i have had in about eight months, maybe that's what made it even more enjoyable.
The tapas is displayed on the bar and you go up and help yourself, throwing two to three sizes of cocktail stick into a glass in the middle which is used add up what you have had at the end of the meal.
There was great variety including about ten mini desserts.
Here are a few to get your taste buds going if you like that kind of thing, we do. Quails egg fried on toast with angulas. Octopus mixed with sweet baby onions and gherkins. mixed sausage tapas, with ham and chorizo. Blue cheese mashed with garlic on toast, raw salmon cubes with a sauce verde.
mini creme Catalans and Tiramisu.
We made a stop at two supermarkets on the way back, the first was in Bassost. The second was a little more cash and carry, but both very good. We bought back chicken, five bottles of good Spanish wine, sherry, sherry vinegar and some house red from the supermarket cave, anchovies, Manchego, and a few other nibbly bits, including my beloved worms!!! angulas to the spanish and baby eels to us.
It was just a really fun day, lovely scenery, nice easy company....and i think the dogs enjoyed themselves too
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