Vernet les Bains (France)

 

Vernet-les-Bains

 

View from our bedroom window

Breakfast on the terrace

 

Della, Antonia, Louise, Edie in the pool at our villa

Walking up the hill to Vernet-les-Bains

 

Almost to the abbey - Vernet-les-Bains in the distance

Abbey of St Martin de Canigou

Villefranche-de-Conflent

 

Edie and Constantin start their walk to the peak of Mt Canigou

The weather had changed by the time they reached their destination!

At the top; above the clouds and electrical storms

The gorge walk

Gorgeous

 

 

 

Della: Staying with our German friends was awesome! Louise was very cute and funny.  Antonia was fun to play with. Constantin was very good at picking up English.The pool was one of the best parts about the house we stayed in at Vernet-les-Bains. It was very clean and had very clear water. It did get cold though sometimes. We went in it nearly every day.The town was very nice. We went to a market there and bought some loom bands. I got sparkly ones. They’re my favourite.We went up a mountain and it was veeeeeery tiring. Up the top there was an abbey. Near the abbey there was a shop; we got some ice creams from there. The lady in the shop (behind the counter) was a nun. In the abbey we saw a lizard. We went to Villefranche-de-Conflent. We walked along the old walls which had lots of little narrow windows that soldiers shot arrows through.Edie:Our German friends were great fun to live with, even if it was only for a week. As Della said, Constantin was very good at picking up English. It was great fun and somehow all of us managed to understand each other. We pointed, acted things out a bit and they also gave us a German language book, so that helped a lot! By the end we were saying words from danke (thankyou) and nein (no) to kase (cheese)!One day, me, dad, Constantin, and Constantin’s parents went on a drive halfway up a mountain then we stopped at a car park and walked the rest of the way to the tip-top of the peak in the pouring rain! The mountain we went up was twice the size of the first one (the one with the abbey on top). It was funny at the top because everybody’s hair stood up on the ends! It took us a few minutes to find out why..... We were in the middle of a thunderstorm, with lightening to make things worse! We had to crouch down under the rocks, it was VERY scary seeing lightening flash just over our heads! We could see Spain from there! (I’m not joking, we really could!)At our villa, there was a pool! I went in every day and after a while I began to get an earache. Even on the mountain day (which took all day) me, Constantin and Mathias had a 9pm swim before dinner! That was one of my favourite swims because the pool was lit up with an underwater light so the pool looked crystal clear and very pretty. I wish I had a photo of it so I could put it on this blogpage.Once, when we were all playing in the pool, all of a sudden Mathias started pretending to be a water-troll! He started grabbing the noodles and thrashing them about in the water, centimetres from our legs that had been dangling from the side and throwing the ball at us! Me and Constantin kept on diving in, throwing the ball back at him. I dived under the water, swimming towards the deep end. As I came up for a breath, I heard the littlies and Constantin cheering me on. Then I saw Mathias duck under the water, racing closer and closer towards me. Then, before I knew it, he was right in front of me, blocking my path! I ducked my head under the water searching for a quick getaway. I dived in between his legs and swam quickly back to the side! So, enough of my long-description-that-was-meant-to-be-quick! Here is my mum for you.PS Constantin is 8 years old, Louise is 4 (and very cute) and Antonia is 6.

Jen:We had a wonderful week in the south of France with our German friends. We originally met Mathias and Andi at Champasak in southern Laos in the first days of the new millennium. We’ve since met up in London, Munich (where they live) and Tassie, and now in France.Our five kids – ranging in age from 4 to 10 – got along really well, despite our girls not speaking any German and the German kids not speaking any English.As you’ll have gathered, the pool was a huge hit – despite the flies and wasps that seemed to love it as much as us.Our villa was a shortish but steep and generally hot walk away from the centre of the old town of Vernet-les-Bains in the Pyrenees. We were very grateful to Mathias who would go into town each morning to buy fresh baguettes and croissant from the boulangerie. We’d generally have a huge breakfast around 11/12. Delicious, gooey cheese was in abundance too, and really nice and well-priced local wine.We’d often have a little excursion in the afternoon – one day to nearby Casteil from where we walked up to the 11^th Century Abbey of St Martin de Canigou – inhabited by the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes. A beautiful building and surrounds, with lovely views back down to Vernet-les-Bains.Another day we drove a few kilometres to Villefranche-de-Conflent, a lovely UNESCO-listed fortified town. Very touristy, but it was fun to walk the city walls and the narrow cobbled streets.I opted out of the full-day walk to the peak of Mt Canigou (more than 2700 metres and 9000 feet above sea level) – I stayed home with the younger girls while the other adults, Edie and Constantin battled the elements to scale the peak. The weather was beautiful when they set out, but they encountered a thunder storm near the top and were drenched when they got home.Another day Mathias, Andi, Matthew and Constantin did a walk through a spectacular nearby gorge (which, uhm, we can’t remember the name of …).Southern France was also where I drove on the “wrong” side of the road for the first time – and absolutely hated it! Matthew’s been doing the driving since.
We had a great week in Vernet-les-Bains and are looking forward to seeing our friends again (briefly) in Munich in late October.

Matt: It was a week of great company, fine French food and wine (and German beer - thanks M+A!), and some exertion. Edie and Constantin proved themselves brave beyond their years by conquering mighty Mont Canigou in persistent rain and amid much thunder and nearby lightening. Language, too, was conquered; the kids finding it no barrier to friendship and play.We fell into an idyllic lifestyle of rising late, eating well, drinking well and just occasionally walking it all off; with the Pyrenees as an ever-changing backdrop. Interesting too to see the extent of Catalan pride and enthusiasm, even in staid Vernet...

Next: Barcelona!