Tuesday 19 April –
A full day of train travel ahead. Caught the 9:30a train from Barcelona to Narbonne. Was in Narbonne about 7 hours (couldn’t get seats on an earlier connecting train to Pau). Dragged my bag (and backpack) to a place for lunch (didn’t want to have my bags held hostage again), had a lovely lunch. Then headed to a park to spend the rest of my leisurely day resting in the park. I had a couple hours lying in the grass (I love that) and enjoying the sun. Then the weather starting turning again. Temperature dropped, clouds rolled in. Headed back to the station early, had a beer in the station bar then caught the train to Pau. I arrived in Pau to cold and rain. It was dark, 22:09 (that’s 10:09p). Nelly and her daughter Lily were coming in from Paris on another train scheduled to arrive about ½ hour after I did. She texted and said it would now be over an hour before she was to arrive. I found my way out of the station (the main entrance was blocked off due to construction) with the attempt to find a warm place to have a drink and wait for Nelly. Well there wasn’t much around the station, so I saw activity up the hill (a very BIG hill) directly in front of me. So I proceeded up the hill (got my cardio in) and found a bar to wait. I realized once I was up, it appeared that the actual town of Pau was above the train station,. Nelly turned out to be not too far behind and met me in the bar. We had a drink then walked the short distance to her apartment she is renting overlooking the valley.
Park in Narbonne
Wednesday 20 April –
Woke up to rain and cold. Nelly insisted there was quite the view of mountains in the distance but were hidden by the rain clouds. The rain did not deter us. Had a late breakfast, then headed out to the market before it closed (closes at 1p and let’s just say we got a very late start). Made it just before her favorite vendors were closing for fresh fruits and vegetables. Then walked around the city a bit, ending up at her usual spot for coffee. The rest of the day was spent walking, driving, exploring.
apartments at top of the hill
Pau
Pau
Little place we had afternoon tea.
Then to dinner at a wonderful restaurant where we met up with Jonathan and family. They were on their way home to Madrid from their holiday and their stop for the night was in Pau. Jonathan and Nelly are also close friends. He and the family had stopped in Pau on their way from Madrid to Fontaine de Vaucluse earlier in the month. So lucky us (me and Nelly) that we got to see them again.
JT, Anne and Nelly
Thursday 21 April –
Walked all over the East side of town visiting a school that looked like Hogwart’s in Harry Potter (we walked in like we belonged there, but way too old for that!), the area where the old English mansions were, with gardens (including a Japanese garden), down the hill past the community pool to the kayaking competition area. This was amazing! If the weather wasn’t so bad, we would have loved to have kayaked. They hold the World Kayaking championships at this location. Quite the facility. Back past the train station and back up the hill that I walked on Tuesday night.
"Hogswart" school.
Old English mansion
Pau
ready to walk up the stairs
Kayak competition venue.
Had lunch with Lily, then out to explore more with the plan to visit the castle. We stopped along the way for tea at this great little spot with a view of the “wanna be” mountains. Raining slightly but we didn’t care. Headed to the castle, visiting the gardens and looking down on the old village that was built in the 1300s! Now that’s old! Got to the castle ready to tour and the ticket office had closed at 5p (we arrived at 5:15p!). Guess our plan was not so “planned”. Oh well, next time we’ll tour the castle.
Castle
Castle
Castle garden
Continued to walk through the medieval village part of Pau, went by a possible apartment Nelly and Lily might be looking to move to, then back to her apartment for a bit of a rest and for her to have be on a conference call with her company (Pita Jungle – in Phoenix AZ). The call ended up taking longer than expected, so Lily and I made dinner, eating at 9:15p. After dinner, Nelly and I went out to get the car so I could teach her how to parallel park. We spent an hour (or so) practicing with much success (nothing like an American teaching a French person how to parallel park, is that from a skit somewhere?). Then the bar for a celebratory beer.
Friday 22 April –
Woke up to the unbelievable view of the mountains (Nelly was correct). So wild seeing palm trees in town with snow capped mountains in the far distance. It was absolutely breathtaking.
Finally, the view from Pau
View from Pau
me and my luggage (plus Nelly's handbag). Not bad for 6 weeks.
Pau train station
Had decided since I was traveling to Portugal today that I should probably get a Covid test, just in case they were to ask for one (it was a little unclear on the website). I got up at 8a, out the door at 8:35a to find a Pharmacy for a test. My third attempt worked, got a test, coffee and results within 20 minutes. Back to the apartment to get Nelly up (and Lily for a mere 2 min) to say goodbye. Nelly walked me to the train station (down that big hill again)….Caught the 10:20a train to Bordeaux where I was flying out to Lisbon for my last adventure of my trip. Took the #1 Bus from the train station to the airport. It appeared that we went through the city of Bordeaux so I got a glimpse of what to expect when/if I visit. The airport was not a very pleasant event, but made it to the plane, where once again…delayed. We sat in the plane for 35 minutes before we could take off. Only 1.5 hours late taking off! Oh the fun of plane travel these days.
Comments