Foix

We drove out of Les Cabanes towards Foix with huge mountains around us - and signs about the area we are in at the Pyrenees.

The chateau of Foix dominates the town.

We parked on the edge of town and walked into the historic centre - while the weather was heating up.

We climbed up to the chateau and enjoyed the cool of the very modern interactive museum . It told of the successions of owners of the castle and the pieces of historical evidence backing up their facts.

The castle had been initially built in the 900s on top of a previous castle. Bits were added over time.

It’s known as a Cathar castle - protecting a religious branch off Catholics that had few rules leading to all sorts of weird and wonderful interpretations of religion. The pope was not happy with this so was always trying to get rid of them. Being hounded they built many castles.

This is an example of a feast meal.

After the museum we walked up the stony paths up to the castle itself.

There were several demonstrations of fighting and building that went on in the castle. The first we saw was the war machinery with big catapults and slings. We then saw the stone cutter describing mathematical measuring techniques using dimensions of human fingers, hands, forearms , arms on a stick. Also using a string with equidistant knots was another very handy tool. All the presenters were dressed in medieval outfits.

There were good views of the town from the castle ramparts.

We then went up the first tower and had better views of the town from the top.

We then worked our way down in the rooms. One was the bedroom of the Count and Countess - and then the judgement room below with thrones.

The guard room had lots of interesting graffiti from the guards waiting around. I think they played a lot of games judging by the coin holes in the stone seats.

We found the nice vegetable garden with lots of herbs on the way back down the hill.

The town itself was ancient and we went to check out the abbey - about 10 minutes walk away. There had been an ongoing power struggle between the chateau and the abbey. The abbey had existed in the 12th century but had many rebuildings over time. Probably the most recent was in the 1700s so it’s still very old. The paintings were huge and the organ takes over the back wall.

We then headed down the street and it now being after 1pm we were lucky to find a table in a narrow medieval shady street for lunch.

I had a galette with chicken, mushrooms and emmental cheese and Glenn had steak frites - both excellent and filling for not an expensive price.

It’s amazing what the quality of food the French can cook up every day!

It was now over 35 degrees so Glenn had spotted the town swimming pool was close to where we had parked Gus. So we got our gear and headed there. We were met with the notice that swimming shorts were not allowed and that men had to wear speedos or boxer type tight shorts. We went to the desk and asked in French for a pair of boxers and 2 tickets. Luckily for us the girl on the desk was English and helped us out a lot finding a pair that would fit Glenn and then explaining the process of changing, lockers etc.

After all that we got changed for the pool and I met Glenn on the other side of the mandatory showers in his new shorts. They looked not too bad - the most noticeable thing were the white tops of his legs that have never seen the sun.

We went into the outdoor pool - the indoor requires a swimming hat.

It was quite busy as it was Saturday - and hot!

There was an adjoining part to the pool that had initially waves. We went in and enjoyed getting thrown up and down by the random waves. We went back to the normal pool for a little swim around - as much as you could do as it was packed with people. We went back into the other pool which had calmed down - and then turned into a whirlpool. We enjoyed getting swept around doing nothing. Then we tried to get out of the narrow entrance of the pool. Glenn got out on his second try. I nearly managed in my third try - but banged into lady and then hung on for dear life - until I had to let go. By hugging the wall on approach I got out easily on the fourth try.

We then got out and headed back to Gus. We then drove off to a bird reserve Glenn had spotted. We arrived there about 6pm when the guides were starting to close up. However the bird hides are open 24/7. We got on our bikes and cycled around the small lakes and seeing many interesting birds and creatures. We saw a few coypu - a South American water rat in 1 pool.

We saw storks , lots of egrets, barnacle geese and 2 kingfishers on a tree.

It was strange as the 2 parts are divided by a large peage motorway that you have to cross 2 times. The birds don’t seem to mind the traffic.

After checking them all out we raced to the top of the hill near our next parking spot to get photos of the very beautiful red sunset.

We then went to the parking spot above the village of Calmont as listed on the Park4Night app. There were already a few cars there but we were able to stop on a side road - but at an angle. We decided to wait until the cars left and then we would drive in. We had our dinner and sat out in the warm night with the great view of village lights and the starry sky.

Glenn saw 15 satellites and a shooting star.

Cars were coming and going and we were already in pyjamas ready to go to bed when the last car left and we drove in.

It was nice and flat for a good sleep. Another big day!