Travelled : 36 miles to Oloron-Ste-Marie in the Central Pyrenees
Visited : Navarrenx
Stay : Oloron-Ste-Marie, free municipal Aire, with services, except water by token, N 43.11.032, W 000.36.511
Visited a town without a hyphenated name !
Just a short blog today as we got up a bit late today and spent and hour or so walking around Sauveterre-de-Bearn. We wanted to look inside the church and mass went forever or so it seemed. Finally underway about lunch time we headed for Navarrenx. It’s a recommended stop in the Rough Guide, so why not.
An easy half an hour and where there. ย There is no traffic, basically in the 20 kilometres we pass about 6 cars. ย We have discovered that the French seem to prefer staying at home on Sundays. ย The churches are full early then everyone must go home as the roads seem unusually quiet on Sundays.
Navarrenx is another ancient town protected by high walls and formal entry gates, mostly still intact. ย It sits on the river Gave d’Oloron. ย It’s very pretty looking down on the stone bridges and the river from up on Navarrenx high stone walls. ย But it’s hot, it’s Sunday and no one is walking around except us and everything is closed so after an hour and a visit to our second church for the day we said au revoir and hit the road again.
We drive onto Oloron-Ste-Marie about another 40 minutes later. It’s a large town with nothing particular to offer other than a free spot to stay. The Aire is only small, just room for 8 camper cars, but it’s on the river, has plenty of shade and it has enough room for people to get out their comfortable chairs and stretch out. Our neighbours are a Belgium couple on there way to a Spain for a couple of months. He likes to chat and I like Belgium beer so we talk for a while before Pam drags me away and we walk the river for about an hour.
Anyway it’s pasta night and you can hear thunder in the distance.
Michael and Pam
