So we decided to leave Super Besse, we felt we'd skied all we could there with the adverse conditions and limited open slopes, plus we were also somewhat chasing the blue skies we'd seen on the Luz Ardiden Insta page. We set off on a beautiful blue sky day which meant travelling was enjoyable.
First stop of the morning was in the tiny village of Lorlanges, south of Clermont-Ferrand for a quick coffee, my favourite part of the day, at the local bar tabac. A great little place where the monsieur proprietor was friendly serving us coffee as if we were locals. The bar also served as a local bakery and restaurant. Villagers came in to collect cooked meals and bread and of course a couple of retirees came in for a beer and to chew the fat. I'd seen the bread price list on the wall and so Chris went to collect a baguette to buy lunch...whoopsie, he got a sharp, 'No vendre', so I guess the sign was an old one and Chris had picked up the bread ready for diners! We left a bit shamefaced but I spotted this building, which particularly caught my eye, with a perfect blue sky backdrop, beautiful stonework and its eternal 'Liberté, egalité, fraternité' signage.
We drove for some hours down through a part of France we hadn't been to before, Occitanie, really enjoying the scenery. Very green and rural with interesting buildings like this hilltop château, and it's village, Sévérac-le-château, with a great view of it's surroundings for miles around. I'm reading an historical novel at the moment and seeing such period buildings helps bring magic to my reading experience, as I imagine people defending their hilltop domaines from pillaging armies.
As we travelled through Ruyenes -en Margeride, we came across this magnificent 'bridge' much like our own Ironbridge in Shropshire.. We stopped for lunch at this obvious tourist attraction to enjoy the amazing views and doing a bit of research in between slices of brie. We discovered it had been engineered by no other than Gustav Eiffel and the Garabit viaduct served as a railway arch bridge spanning the Truyère river for the railway from Clermont-Ferrand to Béziers.
Welcome sunshine after the blizzards and storms in Super Besse.
Roxy enjoyed a bit of sunbathing at this beauty spot too!
We stopped for the night at an aire in Lisle sur Tarn north of Toulouse but unfortunately didn't stay to look around. Roxy enjoyed a sniff or two though. and I spotted the mistletoe parasite in the trees - pretty though isn't it?
We continued our drive south next morning towards Toulouse and Lourdes passing this bucolic group of cottages at Mauvezin, straight from a Thomas Hardy novel. Furthermore, was the austere and eerie looking14th century fortified castle, Château de Mauvezin.
As we drove on the mountains came into the distance as the skies began to grey again. But the view of the Pyrennees was exciting, especially covered in snow. We were now in the Hautes-Pyrennees department, Cieutat, driving towards Lourdes.
If I'm honest we drove more or less straight through Lourdes. It didn't look that great from the outskirts and we had never planned to stop there. However, we did fill up on diesel and LPG gas for our heating and fridge as we felt it might be the last 'big' town to do so before heading for the mountain resorts. Last year, we did have problems with LPG as not many garages do it and certainly not in the mountains.
We decided on Luz Saint-Sauveur, located in the heart of the hilltop villages of the Toy Country, as it was a busy village with a mix of nature, culture, heritage and of course food access to the ski resorts Luz Ardiden, the Grand Tourmalet.
We arrived at last!
Looks lovely guys 👌☀️
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