Return from the mountains--barely,

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that we spend a week in the Pyrennees at Aucun, above Argeles Gazost, at the holiday centre Vers Les cimes. We love the high mountains, and find the holiday does us good. It's always a happy time to meet old friends and meet new ones, to walk among the mountain valleys, even though neither of us can walk as far as we used to. It's lovely to listen to Christian instruction among fellow Christians and to eat the copious and delicious meals we don't have to cook.  However, this year, on the penultimate day, disaster struck, which nearly undid all the benefit. We were going to take the dogs for a little stroll on a footpath near the village but when I tried to start the car to remove it from under the shady pine tree where it is parked to keep the dogs cool, it failed to start, the battery was nearly flat. I couldn't decide whether to call our insurance assistance, or to accept help from our friends at camp to restart the awkwardly parked vehicle .I was really worried about how we would get back home the next day.Eventually, I decided it would be best to call for help. I rang for Credit Mutual assistance and they were really excellent. They sent a local garage to call within half an hour, who had no difficulty in finding the very remote holiday centre. We were expecting a breakdown truck, but the mechanic arrived in a normal car and restarted the car with a portable battery and leads. He gave good directions to his garage, and asked us to go there to have the battery tested as he had another emergency to attend. We drove there very careful not to stall the car, and another most helpful mechanic tested the battery with a high-tech machine, which established that the alternator was charging the battery ok, but the battery itself needed changing. They fitted a replacement straight away, and we drove of having paid just for the battery. It worked fine since for the trip back, so obviously needed changing.
  Bye for now, going to make a nice cup of English tea, don't the French have strange ideas about what constitutes a cuppa!

The van stuck under the pine tree, Laika was trying to pull it out but got tired.