Europe IVa. France with the Lartigues-- Pau

Although we met our nephew, Paul, in July, it was fun to see how much he had grown and have him more interactive with Mae and Adi. He had just started pulling himself around in an army crawl (sweeping the floor, Jean-Marc called it) so it was interesting to see them starting to get used to a mobile baby. It was interesting to compare our last visit, before any of us had kids, with this one but it was still fun.
























Pottery studio
We own several piece of beautiful pottery from Leen and were lucky enough to get to go to the studio to make our own. It was a nice cultural experience for us and fun for the girls. As for the actual pottery produced- maybe it's good we didn't see the final products.


















Donkey ride
Just down the lane from the Lartigues, there are donkeys available for trail rides. After a quick lesson for us on how to control the donkey (sometimes you have to pull with 10 kg of force, sometimes with 40kg) and a brief look at the map, we set off. Adi grinned from ear to ear the entire time. Mae had said she was just going to watch but was indeed willing to get on when we arrived. Her donkey, named Po Pa (certainly spelled differently than that) was more stubborn so Dave ended up muscling her around most of the time.

The most interesting thing to me was the braying-- when we passed a pasture with other donkeys they starting huffing until they'd built up enough pressure to really let loose. But Adi's donkey, Nestor, didn't bray. At first she was upset but we explained that he was shy and now she still talks about it.
























Cave
We toured a nearby cave, which was absolutely massive. This shows the ceiling in a region where an underground river filled the cavern.







Hike
On our final evening in the Pyrenees, Jean-Marc suggested we go on a hike.



I was worried the kids wouldn't enjoy it but there was plenty to keep everyone amused.






I went a little crazy with the camera, trying to capture the beauty of the evening sky above jagged, snow-dusted peaks.













The girls stirred up and stomped on gopher (?) holes and were delighted when a group of equestrians passed us.







And it made their day to see a sheep-herder just before we returned to the trailhead.