Late nights and too many beers
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
38
67
Trip End
Dec 22, 2007
Where I stayed
Super Bagneres resort
Luchon, France
Friday, July 13, 2007
Lozza's an Aussie sheila from home and Seb's a local at the town where we are headed, Bagneres de Luchon. Together they operate the snack bar at the local pool during the summer, so not only did they have late nights with us they had to back up and work the next day as well.
We arrived with all the intentions of seeing the sights but ended up spending a considerable amount of time enjoying the comforts of home, TV's, couches, fridges, couches, videos, couches. We did set out for a day's sightseeing on Sunday and managed a visit to a nice waterfall and were heading out of town up to the local ski resort, called Super Bagneres, before realising we had no petrol in the tank to go any further and as it was Sunday there was nowhere to get any so it was back to the couch. We are visiting again at the end of our European leg with Mum when she's over so we'll have to be more motivated then.
We also spent a lot of time with Seb and Lozza's friends, Mike and Annette, a couple of UK immigrants who have renovated a beautiful guesthouse called Villa Portillon. We will be staying there when we return in September. Annette and Mike cooked an amazing meal for us on our last night, and Seb cooked two equally impressive meals leaving us to fend for ourselves only one night we were there.
Highlights of our stay include:
The night markets on Friday night with a backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains, and yes, Mandy did manage to make another purchase, this time a knitted poncho with stripes and flowers. (It looks better than it sounds)
During our waterfall visit I foolishly decided to wear my Plugga's (Thongs, Flip Flops or Jandles, depending on where you're from) and the track turned out to be quite slippery in many places, culminating in a nasty fall as I was climbing up a large rock step. I was almost up but then slipped a bit losing all my forward momentum and balancing precariously for a few seconds reaching out for Mandy to help. Mandy then took two steps forward out of reach to save herself leaving me to plummet the 40 cm drop on my own. Did I mention I was videoing myself during all this. Somehow at the time I managed to convince myself that it was all her fault, after all she only had to reach out and pull me to safety. Later we watched the video replay and after recovering from fits of laughter I was forced to admit that maybe I had only myself to blame.
Pizza.... For lunch, three days straight. We did change pizza shops one day though just to change it up a bit. Nothing like variety.
Gardening Capers...In almost every building the veranda's are lined with planter boxes full of flowers in bloom. Except Lozza's. So the girls went and emptied the local nursery and spent the afternoon planting out five boxes full of colour. Lozza got her flowers and Mandy got a gardening fix - two birds with one stone.
Crazy Weather - Day One: Sunny 30 degrees, Day Two: Low Clouds 16 degrees, Day Three: Hail and Storms Cold. Crazy weather.
Lying on the couch watching Australia beat South Africa in the Rugby. Bring on the World Cup.
Lying in the main street of Luchon at 2 am taking photos of ourselves. Can't remember whose idea that was, things were a bit hazy by then.
Thanks to Seb and Lozza for your hospitality during our stay, we had a great time. See you in September. Maybe Annette will make another dessert like the one we had this time. Hehehe.
