Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 1 Prats de Mollo, France and over the border to Spain

Now we are going back to June and our trip around the Pyrenees. We didn't have the best of weather when we set off but we did at least see the sun albeit briefly! We avoided the motorway as much as possible and headed to Prats de Mollo near the border with Spain.

Here's a map of our route for the first two days, which was mostly just driving. It's one hell of a long way around the Pyrenees which is why we decided it was necessary to take three weeks.

I saw a few orchids at one of the places we stopped at to look at the views and this is an Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula).

This is Prats de Mollo la Preste, close to Spain. It's not the first time we have visited but it's a pretty little place worth having a look at, with a fort up above the town for those who fancy a good workout walking up there. We didn't!

Fort Lagarde showing on the right. It’s yet another fort designed by Vauban, in 1680. In fact, K and I had walked up there years ago, up the underground walled walkway which takes you to near the entrance of the fort, but when we got there, the place was closing! It wasn’t a real big deal, as we have seen so many of Vauban’s strongholds that we knew pretty much what it would have looked like.

The river Tech.

I'm guessing this is a sentry/lookout spot on the old town wall, probably guarding the bridge.

It's only taken my brother about 50 years to start using an umbrella, yes really! I am still amazed every time he gets it out. He used to just wear a hood, or get wet, he was so anti brollies.

Remains of old town fortifications.

This map was interesting showing the French/Spanish border as it has changed over the centuries. The current border is the black one. The little Spanish island in the middle is an enclave called Llivia, which we visited at the end of the journey, so I'll tell you about it then. This is just the eastern end of the Pyrenees.

The following day we had to change our itinerary as we'd planned to visit Nuria, a valley at about 2,000m altitude reached only by a rack railway. As there was low cloud and the temps at Nuria were due to have a high of 12C, we decided to give it a miss and continue on our journey.

We stopped for a short walk beside the Noguera Pallarasa river through the Collegats Gorge, near to La Pobla de Segur.

And here are some pics of us, somewhere. You know how it is when you pull over where there is a view but you never remember where on earth it was. 😀 Keith tells me that's why he uses the GPS on his camera so he always knows where his photos are, but I don't have that function on any of my cameras.

Our trip got a bit more interesting after this. 😀