Day 14: Pau-Lourdes, France

Today was one of my most memorable days so far.  I went hiking on le Chemin d'Henri IV, which goes from Bizanos(near Pau) to Lourdes.  It is about 40km between the two cities, and the hike took about 8 hours. The trail begins at Chateau de Franqueville, which was Henri's other home in Pau.  It probably functioned as a hunting lodge or something, and it also has a small vineyard.

The Chateau, from the vineyard.

The train was very nice at times.  Often, it was just very small roads through farmland.  I don't have a whole lot else to say yet.  I mean, we walked, for 8 hours.  Here are some pictures:

A lot of the trail looked basically like this.

These giant slugs were everywhere.  This one is 4" long.

These ones are eating a Chestnut.

Verily, King Henri crossed this highway many a time.

My readers from Nebraska will love this picture.

Neat little abandoned farm house in a clearing.

Don't worry.  I took the road less traveled by. (left)

This slug is bright orange.

I only posted like maybe half of the pictures I took of slugs.  Your're welcome.

Lunch time with Anne(ME), Kate(CA) and Jamie(OH)

Another cool abandoned farm house.

Me somewhere in France.

Frog in the trail.

 So basically, things went really well, until we got to within about 6km or Lourdes, and then we were in Pouyferre, which is not Lourdes.   This was pretty demoralizing, since we were all very tired, sore, and it was beginning to rain.  We had to walk about 5 km on a highway before we finally made it.  It was nice to arrive.  We went to the train station and caught a train back to Pau.  We had planned to spend some time in Lourdes, but by that point, we just wanted to go home.  Back in Pau, we went for kabob sandwiches.  It was still fantastic.  The walk back home was possibly the hardest part.  My foot hurt and it was cold and pouring rain.
The hot shower at home was completely fantastic though.  Really long day today, but very fun.

The castle in Lourdes