A week in the Mountains

As promised, I will continue with the saga of our annual stay in the Pyrenees.We left the Formule 1 hotel at about 930 and arrived at our destination Vers les Cimes at about midday.
   A bit of background if you haven`t read my last year report. Vers les Cimes is a holiday centre owned by the evangelical church of Orthez. Many years ago they bought the land near the village of Aucun,  at about 850 mtres of altitude, under the peaks called the Gabizos, which you can see in my picture. Originally the centre had wooden huts, which still exist, though now their `campers` are chickens! Later these spartan hutments were replaced by more modern buildings, which have recently be updated further. The site is used to provide Christian holidays for children of the church at Orthez and more generally throughout the Evangelical church. It was decided some years ago, to run a `Camp des Ainés` in the week before the centre opens for the children. About 30 older people spend a week in he mountains,with a session of Bible study for an hour in the mornings and an outing to the mountains in the afternoon. All meals are provided and we risk to come down heavier than we went up, despite some strenuous walking!

  Talking of the continuous effort made by the Ortez church, they have this year almost completed the restoration of the traditional barn, which was used as a meeting hall but was becoming very delapidated. Here are some before and after pictures. The restoration has been beautifully done and the old barn should be good for another century or so of its long life.
    This year we had the Pasteur Eric Denimal leading the Bible Study. He is famous in France and is the author of many books, the latest of which is Le Bible pour les Nuls. Eric has the gift of making the bible comprehesible for all levels and we were very lucky to have him, despite a painful injury six weeks ago when he fell from a step ladder and broke a bone in his foot. We now have a signed copy of his book which will prove interesting reading. He was asked to give us instruction on the Apocalypse, Revelations to us Anglophones, not the easiest of books. Still, we now know a bit more about it...
  The weather was fairly kind to us--it is often a bit capricious in the mountains, and we were only stopped once from our daily excursions. As the cancelled day was a full-day climb to the Lac d`Estom, I was a bit muted in my disappointment....

   We did manage to visit some beautiful and high scenery. We take the two biggest dogs with us to camp and they were pleased to have some new places to sniff. Besides their local strolls up the Route de Then, they were able to sample the air in several cols and upland walks. They shared our interest when we came across a farmer moving his sheep to their summer upland grazing near the Lac d`Esteign. Well, I`ve run out of inspiration for today and Blogger is showing worrying signs of revolt so I shall quit while I`m ahead. I`ll be back soon to muse a bit more on our retreat to the high places. Bye for now!