We finished up in the Ariege in much the same way as we started. Still sanding and painting various parts of the house and still doing lots of hiking. We did managed to explore some of the castles in the area and also had a nice Easter brunch with the family. Some of the castles were piles of rocks and others were straight out of a fairy tale. Below is Mont Segur, it took them a while to sack this one.
We finished hiking with an overnight stay in the mountains in a cabin. There are cabins all over the mountains that are free to use throughout the year. They are basic but normally have a fireplace and a bed. We were running out of time, so opted to give it a go in not the best weather. We started in dense cloud, with high winds and a bit of rain. Awesome idea to go walking for 2 days.
But with enormous faith, it actually turned out pretty good. We got out of the cloud after an hour or so, and had some pretty reasonable weather. It didn't take long to start seeing patches of snow. The snow gradually increased and eventually we strapped on the snoeshoes for the last 3 hours to reach the cabin. 2 hours up one side of a pass, and one hour down the other side. No idea on the path and taking the most direct route.
It also had some great easy walking too. This is half way through day 2.
We ended up spending 4 weeks at this workaway. We had been on the continent for over 11 weeks and excluding the trip from London to southern Spain, we have paid for 2 nights accomodation. But the time had come for us to actually start travelling. We took 10 days to travel from the French Pyrenees to central Italy.
On the first day we stopped in on medieval Carcasonne (above), a massive Roman aquaduct (below) called Pont du Gard and made it to Avignon. A papal city during the pope's short transition from the Vatican to France. There really is a lot of history to see.
and Avignon. The view from outside our campsite.
We then went to see some French flamingoes in the Carmargue. The area is also famous for white horses and black bulls, although both of these are now just tourist attractions for pony rides and bull fights. We are in Provence in France, and they have a bull ring and try to sell Paella everywhere, go figure.
Next up Aix-en-Provence, via St Remy, where Van Gough was in hospital and painted a lot. Aix was a nice change from all the tourism. It's just a pretty city that has it's own character and isn't overrun with tourists running around by the busload. From there it was a couple of days crawling along the Cote d'Azur and soaking up the Med vibe (below). We stopped in St Tropez and did drive-bys through Nice and Monaco. We then headed up to Piedmonte in Italy to catch up with Bella's auntie for a night in an Italian villa, before making a B-line on the Italian toll roads to reach our next workaway near Chiusi, on the border of Tuscany and Umbria. A fantastic part of the world.
It took a while for this part of the world to grow on me. It wasn't what I was expecting for some reason. Plenty of farming with ploughed fields and fields of pasture. Not too many vineyards or olive grows but definitely plenty of rolling hills. Plenty of churches too. This is the heart of Renaissance art and there are definitely amazing churches in every two-bit town with some masterpiece lurking in a corner.
Our workaway here is going well. We are at another farm house that is being renovated. It is a UK/US family with 2 daughters. Bella has been gardenning and sewing while I have been hands on with the reno chipping away at stone walls and then slapping cement back on them.
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