We decided to take a trip out from our domestic idyll in Moncrabeau and head as far south west as we could go without ending up in Spain. It’s tricky finding places open at this time of year and the hotel we’d picked closed their restaurant on Friday and Saturday night (strange nights to choose even at this time of year) but they offered us the weekend special for Sunday and Monday night instead.
We drove south in pouring rain and went through Pau but on a cold and wet Sunday it didn’t look very inviting so we pressed on. The Hotel Alysson promised stunning views of the Pyrenees but apart from a brooding presence somewhere in the low cloud it was impossible to see anything. Oleron was a pretty town with a huge river running through it though the hotel was in a more suburban area, next to a large leisure centre and close to the main A road to Saragossa in Spain. It was very comfortable and lovely and warm and J was able to watch his favourite French TV programmes which he can’t get in Moncrabeau where we have English TV. He likes his fix of ‘Les Chiffres et les lettres’ and ‘Question pour un champion’. There seemed to be just one other guest and only a couple of diners in the restaurant.
We had a lovely dinner. The house cocktail of Jurancon wine, a local spirit and champagne was much nicer than it sounds and made a good start for at tiny turnip soup, crab and salmon salad, duck, cheese and a delicious apple pudding. Hare featured largely on the menu but we managed to avoid it! Monday we went a la carte where I had a near miss with some rather lightly cooked pigeon (been there before) and John had béarnaise sauce with h is beef since this part of the world is the Bearn, something I didn’t know but must come in handy for future quiz questions.
On Monday we were able to see the mountains, with quite a fair covering of snow as they ducked in and out of the clouds. We drove through the beautiful countryside, dotted with chalet style houses with dark red half timbered roofs, raging torrents of rivers, warnings about ‘troupeaux’ of sheep on the road and pretty villages. The rain let up to allow us to have a good walk around the medieval hill town of Sauveterre, admire the Pont des Legends and the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. We headed across the hills to St Jean de Luz, a very picturesque town with a beautiful golden beach though the sea was more great than blue. Another fabulous part of France, no doubt even lovelier in better weather though I think it’s frequently wet and windy. The sky looked much the same in November as it did in Biarritz in August a couple of years ago.
On Tuesday it was raining quite hard though again we got a pretty good view of the mountains as we headed back. By the time we got back to Moncrabeau it was a glorious sunny day though very cold. We’d enjoyed our little break within a break but it was also nice to come ‘home’ and get the fires lit and bunker down. The mouse made another appearance whilst I was cooking supper – clearly hopeful that now we were back there might be some richer pickings and I had another brush with nature when I went to put the rubbish outside away from the mouse and stepped on frog loitering on the back door step. Luckily for the frog I was wearing slippers so it just moaned at me before wandering off!
No comments:
Post a Comment