Saturday 2/25-Tuesday 2/28

On Saturday (2/25), Mark and I took a train to Bayonne (where we had two hours to kill, so we toured around a little bit--making sure to get a Gâteau Basque for Mark to taste!), then another train to Lourdes (where we had one hour to kill...we just sat at the train station), and a bus up into the Pyrénées to a little town called Cauterets.

Photo: The village of Cauterets

Catherine's family owns a flat in an old hotel there (it's absolutely gorgeous) and they invited us to go stay there with them.

Photo: The Hotel

When we arrived, everyone had recently gotten back from a long day of skiing and they were planning to go out to a favorite restaurant for dinner.

Of course we went along! We were a huge group: the Bergfelds (5), Chantal's family (6), Pierre's friend, Jules, and Isabelle with her baby, Alexandre...17 people! Luckily the restaurant was prepared (apparently they go there every year) and we all tucked in to a massive dinner of fondue or raclette! Mark and I chose fondue and ate until we were ready to explode! It was so delicious!!!!!

Photo: Delicious Dinner!

The next day we rented some shorter skis and went to the Pont d'Espagne (about halfway up the mountain) with Isabelle and Alexandre. They were planning to go sledding and we were headed to the green slope.

Photo: Pont d'Espagne

Photo: Yes, I am wearing a green gumdrop suit...

I had no problem getting back into skiing (I'd gone two days when I was younger). It was really fun to be out in the snow and it was actually really warm and sunny!

It was Mark's very first time on skis, so that was quite a challenge.

He had some painful tumbles before lunch, but after lunch he kept trying and ended up feeling a lot more confident by the end of the day!

Photo: At Pont d'Espagne

On Monday (2/27) I left in the morning with Ralf, Margot, Hugo, and Lucas and we took the cable cars waaaay up to the top of the mountains! I had borrowed Chantal's skis, so they were quite a bit longer than the ones I'd skied with the day before...

Photo: Ralf and Margot on a lift

After we'd gone down a green, we took the ski lift all the way to the very top of the slopes. The view from up there was incredible!

Photo: The view at the top

But then we had to get down. I said I was up for trying the blue slopes, so we headed down. I, not surprisingly, fell three times on the first slope (one of my skis coming off two of the times), but after I became more adapted to the steeper, narrower slopes and longer skis, I did okay! I didn't fall much after that and it was so exciting! (And, at times, terrifying!)

Photo: Mark and Catherine coming in from the slopes

Mark arrived around lunchtime with Catherine and she gave him a few lessons on skiing (how to turn and how to stop). After lunch, Margot and I skied with Mark for a while and he was so much better! He didn't fall at all and he was a lot more confident with his turning. He stayed on the lower slopes to practice for a while and I went back up to the top to ski with the whole group (Isabelle had arrived as well).

Photo: Up at the top!

It was fun getting to watch the kids go on the ski jumps (not that they did anything particularly fancy, but they loved having us as the audience) and I went down a few red slopes as well! (Here they have four levels: Green, Blue, Red, Black)

Photo: OH YEAH!!!

At 4:30pm, Ralf and I headed down to meet up with Mark and take the cable car back down to the town. We were all exhausted!

That evening we just relaxed and played a bunch of cards with Margot, Catherine, and Isabelle.

Photo: Playing Cards!

Photo: Dinnertime

Tuesday (2/28) we headed back to Tyrosse, but this time we got a ride from Isabelle! It was nice to avoid the 5 hours by train, as it only takes 2 hours by car because there are no lay-overs.

To see more pictures from our trip to Cauterets, check out this album:

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