Through the back door

Read on below for an update of the harvest season! In other news, Dad and Grandma Trudy were just here last week for a visit and I have also moved to the northern city of Angers for three weeks to take classes. In lieu of writing all about October now (don’t worry it will come eventually) I’m giving you a preview in pictures. Which might be more eloquent than anything I can write for you anyway.

Market day in the medieval town of Sarlat; the perfect place to find bread, cheese and sausage for a picnic

A thousand year old castle rises up out of the hill in the middle of the rural Dordogne river valley

The castle across the valley, seen from the view in an underground cave carved out by Magdelinian people, is now privately owned by an English family

Dad and I at the top the watch tower, overlooking the valley, at the chateau

The Maison Forte de Reignac is literally a stone house, with rooms and stairs carved into the huge cliff behind the first wall

The stony, cold, interior of the Maison de Reignac carves its way through three levels of rock

Dad and Grandma enjoying lunch at Les Jardins de Marqueyssac, high above the Dordogne river with exceptional views of the countryside

A covered passageway through the box hedges at Marqueyssac, the perfect childhood fantasy

The watchful companion of a farmer in the Pyrenees Mountians

Wandering goats on the hillside overlooking the village of St Lary Soulan

At 6000 feet, the view from the living room of our B&B high up in the mountains

In the Pyrenees National Park, Spain just behind us and a stunning view of the farming valley below

The epitomy of a rugged mountain horse: deep chested, short legged, hairier than a sheep dog, and eternally friendly

Family love

The fog rolls through the mountains on a fall afternoon heavier than the workhorses who live here

Nine to five class days and weekend trips hiking in the Pyrenees and wandering the streets of Barcelona don’t leave much time for blogging or updating, so I’m sorry the newest updates are so late! Also distracting me this week was news that my study tour of wineries for the next three weeks was changed from Spain and Portugal to Italy, Romania, and Greece… woah. So instead of posting pictures and detailed descriptions of breathtaking mountains, I’ve been googling Romanian wines.

In any case, two weekends ago now I was in the Pyrenees mountains. The Pyrenees are a range of mountains in the south of France, on the border with Spain. The Pyrenees are stunning. Stretching for somewhere around 300 miles, the range contains so many back door, hilly towns and interesting people; I could probably spend all seven months hiking there. The entire group from school went and we spent Sunday hiking to the Cirque de Gavarnie. This is a huge bowl in the side of the one of the mountains. Formed by glaciers, the cirque is at a high enough elevation to maintain snow all year and has amazing views of the surrounding valleys.

The cirque de gavernie, with another two hours of walking to go

The hike was easy and flat until right at the end when you had a steep ascent to the bottom of the falls; ten minutes of taking one step forward and three backward finally got us up the rocky slope. If I had a week in the Pyrenees it would definitely be a great place to backpack and get in some serious climbing.

Hardy, mountain bred horses are common in the Pyrenees

Justine and I at the cirque de gavernie, with a stretch of valley behind us

Sunday night we stayed at one of the Alpine Club’s (similar to the Adirondack 46ers Club) hostels in the mountains and enjoyed a three course, home cooked dinner. After, a few of us went for a short hike to the top of a nearby hill that overlooks the town of Gavernie. On the top of the hill you get a beautiful look at the town below and the peaks above. There is also a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus, keeping watch on the sleepy farms in the surrounding mountains. The sight from the top of that hill has been one of my favorites so far on this trip. So much so that I woke up at 5:30 the next morning and hiked back up to get pictures as the sun rose and cut colors across the valley.

The view from the hill outside Gavernie, looking north east through the Pyrenees

The statue in the mountains, keeping watch

Unfortunately, we did have to leave the Pyrenees and head back to reality. Before we got back to school, however, we stopped at a small dairy farm in the foothills. The farm is run by a man, Pierre (who speaks not a lick of English), and his wife who are regionally famous for the incredibly smooth and creamy yogurt made from their cows. Farms in France are much smaller than in the US and production is always done on a much smaller scale. Pierre has about 40 cows and 20 heifers; along with yogurt, he produces cheese and raw milk commercially. It was the first farm visit I’ve had in France so far and it was amazing to see how efficient and yet very natural the agriculture is here.

The milking, processing, and packaging of products is all done at the farm. From cow to food right before your eyes

After my weekend of back door experiences in the Pyrenees, we had a week of intensive classes and a few more farm visits, including a trip to the Roquefort cheese caves. Roquefort is a famous blue cheese in France that has been produced for a few hundred years. Also, last weekend, we went to Barcelona and had free time to spend in the city. It was a relaxing three days and I am in love with Barcelona’s carefree attitude. More on those trips soon!