The Beast from the East

Snow on our palm, camellia and magnolia trees

Brits love giving things funny names. When a cold wave (or polar vortex) sent air straight from Siberia over just about all of Europe it was dubbed "The Beast from the East". Here is Pau we almost escaped it, but we heard about how cold all of Europe was - there was snow in all sorts of unusual places. But eventually it arrived, suitably weakened, in Pau and it gave us a few hours of snow and a couple of days around freezing. This gave us a chance to test out the wood stove, and it worked fine. The combination of palm trees and snow was too good to miss, so we also took some pics.  

PS The Brits dubbed a subsequent weather system bringing some snow as "The Pest from the West". It didn't make it to Pau...

Le Chemin Henri IV

The Chemin Henri IV is a 40 Km hike from Pau to Lourdes (or vice versa) that King Henry was supposed to take back in the day. It mostly follows a lowish ridge and doesn't involve any big climbs though it's not exactly flat. Anyway the big attraction for me is that it passes fairly near my house. Back in St Andre there were some really good hikes I could do from my front door and I'm keen to see what hikes I can do without taking the car in Pau.

So I had a little hike along it today. From my house I joined the hike in about 15 minutes; I hiked it for about 10 Km and had lunch before turning round and coming home. This first 10 Km is actually pretty flat; near Pau there were lots of other 'day-trippers' - hikers, mountain bikers and runners - but things got quiet pretty quickly. The snowy peaks of the Pyrénées were visible through the hazy sunshine all the time. There are lots of trails and mountain bikes that cross the Chemin Henri IV, so you can make your own hikes.

So, all in all, it's what I expected; I can hike a bunch of flattish trails from my house. But if I want to climb mountains, I need to take my car or get on my bike.

A few pics.

A Last Look Round

After almost 8 years in St Andre (well, 8 for me, 3+ for my wife), today is our last day here. We're moving to Pau, in south west France and there are quite a few changes in store for us. We'll have a big house with a garden rather than a 'maison de village' with a balcony. I'll be hiking and climbing in the Pyrénées rather than the southern Alpes. We're moving from a village of 900 people to a town of nearly 90,000. From a dry Mediterranean climate to a more maritime one. From living at 900 m altitude to a more reasonable 200 m. From being near Italy and the Med to being near Spain and the Atlantic. From a right voting region to a left voting region.

360 degrees from the balcony, with the church and Chalvet

Anyway, we're waiting for the movers (and we'd wait quite a while - never use L'Officiel du Déménagement as movers) and I'm taking a photo from my balcony and looking forward to our new life in the Sud-Ouest.

Le Grand Cordeil

View N from the summit, at 2115 m

I'm very familiar with le Grand Cordeil, a 2115 m peak 10 km or so north of St Andre. I've seen it from all sorts of angles on different hikes and flown onto it many times on a paraglider. But, until today, I've never actually hiked it. It's not a technical peak, but it's very steep except for a route passing by the Cabane de Cordeil. In the summer and fall there are sheep and, more problematically, patous (big guard dogs against wolves) but the sheep moved out last weekend. So I was keen to climb it before the snow arrived and I got my chance today.

Everything went according to plan and I had lunch on the summit with excellent views in all directions. Looking north across the Thorame valley there was a snow squall on the right and clouds were playing with the summits of Cheval Blanc on the left. 

On the way down I passed the abandoned Cabane de Cordeil when I saw a hen running towards me. It had obviously been left behind accidentally by the shepherd when he moved out for the winter and it was hungry. I didn't have any suitable food for it and was a bit unsure what to do. I should probably have taken it back to St Andre and found someone to adopt it, but I'm afraid I left it there and it's not going to get through the winter.

La Croix de la Salcette

I've known Murray for over 40 years; he lives a couple of hours drive away near Briancon, where he has worked as a mountain guide for the last 25 years or so. But I hadn't seen him in the last couple of years and decided to rectify that today. I got up early and drove up the Durance valley to his house; after elevenses we hiked steeply up behind his house to the Croix de la Salcette (at 2331 m) for great views of Briancon and all the surrounding peaks. Murray found us an 'interesting' descent and served up pumpkin soup before I drove back home. 

A few pics.

L' Autapie

Looking NW from the summit at 2436 meters

Today was dry, sunny, cold and windy - perfect hiking weather if you dress warmly. The mountains are still basically snow free though an overnight dusting of snow left the peaks above 2200 meters looking a little wintry. I took advantage of the relative lack of snow with a hike up the Autapie; normally at this time of year it's deep in snow and (at least in theory) in a few weeks it should be the top of a ski run. But for today it was a very nice hike, though the wind on the summit was icy cold. The descent is by the east side of the mountain, so it was in the shade and very chilly. I arrived back at the car just as it was getting dark, very happy with my day out.

A few pics.

La Cirque de Juan

A lot of my hikes are 'repeats' but today I managed a new local hike. The Cirque de Juan is a relatively open cirque just above the tree line surrounded by ridges going up to 2400 meters. There's a cabane but the sheep have headed down by now and I had the whole cirque to myself. From the ridge I had huge views in every direction; very nice.

Some 'arty' out of focus pics.