Third and final day in the South brought us into the mountains. We left Collioure bright and early Sunday morning and took a bus into the Pyrenees to visit one of the largest grottos in Europe. It was full of yellow and orange stalagmites, stalactites and drapeaux (I can't remember what it is in English- but the cloth looking ones). It was immense and beautiful and cold. But the pictures just kind of look gross and confusing.
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Grotto des Grandes Canallettes |
From the grotto, we went as a giant 30 person group to lunch in a tiny Medieval fortified town. I think town is even a generous term though, maybe village, mini-village would work better. It was called Villefranche and consisted of two, yes two, whole streets and a fort at the top of the hill. Our lunch was a humongous 3 course meal, and after we were free to roam about for a few hours. We started the hike up to the fort, Fort Liberia, and what we were told was 1000 steps to the top, was a lot more hill than step. And it ended up costing quite a bit to go all the way up, so I decided to stop about 3/4 of the way up and sat by myself enjoying the view and the silence.
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Villefranche & Fort Liberia |
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The countryside |
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Dorky hiking |
After the hike I found some friends and we wandered in and out of the little tourist shops and of course the candy stores. And eventually we got on the bus, to get on the train back to Paris. We had a few hours back on the train, watching the countryside slowly get darker, until all we could see was the lights that zipped by. One chocolate bar, a few French magazines, and about 560 miles later we were back in Paris. I took the métro back to my neighborhood with friends and was actually surprised when I hoped out of the station and saw that fall had finally hit Paris. The walk to my front door was cold, windy and rainy. The seasons are changing and they're reminding me how precious my time here is.
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