Europe Spain and France part 6

Its Tuesday the 30th of May and we are heading north towards Andorra. Again its a wide open plain with fields of wheat and grass and not much traffic, we stop around 1pm up above the village of in a parking spot with views across the valleys. Above is a small church and once you reach that there are small iron steps and railings set into the rock face. A walk to the top rewards with sweeping views, not for the faint hearted though and once the wind picks up its a bit dodgy.

  

 

We seem to have a clever artist in the vicinity and soon discover just above our stop 2 goats done in stone and iron, next day on our walk through the fields we spy cows done the same, and as we leave and drive out we spy 2 small snails also, here are the pics..

    

We are now heading towards the Pyrenees mountains and start to climb to a higher altitude.

Our last overnight stop in Spain is at Organya, another free purpose made stop for motorhomes, we have about 3-4 neighbours, they come and go. By morning the weather has come in and the clouds are low on the mountains as we head up into Andorra.

Andorra is a tax free country, small but popular it seems as I only seem to recall maybe 40 odd years ago winding my way up from the other side in an old Combi that it was just a couple of duty free streets and thats it? Now its a small high rise imitation of Hong Kong, Ok maybe not that dramatic but certainly its a large city as we drive through. We did think of stopping but once we saw the huge population we drove straight through and back down the other side. Shame I filled up with fuel a couple of days ago its so much cheaper here, I do cringe as we drive past the numerous petrol stations flaunting their cheap prices.

 

Its a winding road down the other side, not too heavy on the brakes as they start to smell after a while. We end up stopping at a ski village above Ax-Bonascle which entails another winding hairpin road up the mountain, of course once you get there thats forgotten. Its very quiet as you would expect, no snow and summer trekking season has yet to start. Bloody perfect of course!  No one here and we walk the hills and tracks enjoying the amazing scenery.

    

This walk was so amazing we did it again in the morning, at times you feel like you are just on top of the world even though your not. Hard to explain but walking through these forests on your own is just incredible and we are so lucky to be able to experience this.

    
 
We leave and make our way back down the winding road and head north following the river and the exquisite French countryside.
Here is the drive..

We make our way to a small camper stop on the river at Esperaza, where we find a few campers parked along the rivers edge. A walk along the river doesn’t really do it plus the village is a bit tired. Anyway we settle and enjoy a quiet night. In the morning I mention a walk, trek really, that takes us around the village. Turns out we are climbing the hill through a small track, then through the fields and vineyards getting lost at least twice before reconnecting with the track and emerging at the top. By the time we finish we loved it, we had such amazing views as we climbed the hills and the walk back down was sweet.

   

 After a bit of a clean up and empty its time to move and we make our way to a spot at Lake D’Escueillens where we park up under a tree. There are a few fisherman camped up hoping to catch a carp I suppose. Never really understand their style of fishing seems very static. They have all their rods out and sit waiting for a strike, seems they sit for hours staring at the water? We do enjoy a quiet  night and the walks along basically traffic free roads are great with wide open farmland, the odd farmhouse and not much more.
   

After a morning walk we head off  and make our way through the forests and hills before we arrive at Fanjeaux, although it took a few tries to find the motorhome stop.  Amazing view on the way…

Once we succeeded we find a small lovely stop under the trees with another 3-4 vans, a bit of lunch and a relax before we check out the village. It really surprises us, from the small square at the front the village ascends the hill and we pass many abstract pieces of iron art, the old market square and end up at an old church that has the best  views. Fanjeaux has a great feel, its arty but without hordes of tourists, well at this time of the year anyway, well recommended to visit. On our way back we enjoy a beer at the corner bar and watch the traffic wiz by below, seems that road which we didn’t take is popular. We enjoy a quiet night and leave early after a quick clean up.

   

Our destination is the old walled town of Carcassonne, a place I visited about 40 years ago and for some reason we have not returned to this area so we make an early start and reach a parking area about 5 minutes walk from the gates. The hoards have yet to arrive although its already pretty busy. Its a place you need to visit if you can, we are lucky to be near so grab the opportunity to walk the lanes and be amazed by the structure of the walls and towers. Here are some of the pictures but dont really do it justice, we do enjoy our walk around.

   

From Carcassonne we head down and across the plains before we ascend again up to our destination at Lac Des Montagnes, a lake but really a dam. Beautiful spot among the huge trees and forest, after some lunch and a rest we venture out and walk the lake, passing many walkers and fishermen. Its a bonjour from most as you expect in France, the walk is stunning through the old forest and circumnavigating the lake. We enjoy a quiet night and again walk the lake both ways in the morning, this time we only see a couple of fishermen setting up for the day.
 

Once we leave we travel a long way down and are surprised by how high this lake was, it seems we are winding our way through numerous hairpin turns before we reach a flat road and make our way to another star French village called Lautrec. Here are some photos of Lautrec..

    

We leave Lautrec and are rolling through small roads past huge farm fields then forest, the odd one horse town and occasionally a car passes. We have some destinations in mind, the first couple don’t pass, the next couple don’t either, its one of those days, luckily its only a few kilometres between each choice. Eventually we park up at a Voie Verte parking spot, its perfect and under a tree. So a Voie Verte is French for a walking/biking trail in the countryside, and the parking spot is for you to stop and take the dog for a walk. Its a big parking area so we are fine and once parked up we head out along the track, passing through fields of wheat, garlic as well which is well known for this area and patches of forest. I don’t remember passing anyone on the way. We spend a quiet night alone. The morning brings another walk in the opposite direction, this time we do pass some bike riders, dog walkers and runners, not many though. Its a lovely walk this way and becomes more forest rather than fields bordered by thorny shrubs.

  

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