Well our first night in a French hostel wasn’t too bad. I drew the short straw and got the top bunk. The beds are actually quite comfortable but making them up is a challenge. My bed covering didn’t stay on very long once I got into the bed but in the end I decided I didn’t care that much. I’ll try to do better tonight having learnt a few things from last night’s failure. Each bed has its own lamp and power point socket so very good for charging phones and for Sheila’s cpap machine. There’s a communal shower and bathroom area down the corridor that about 4 other rooms share. It seems to work quite well. We didn’t seem to have any snorers close by last night. At least none that I heard. Maybe they all heard me and I slept through it!!  The first of the alarm clocks rang at about 5am and then it was a steady stream of lights turning on and off, clomps of shoes walking by and voices being heard in the hallway. Since we weren’t leaving we just stayed in bed until the commotion subsided and emerged to find the place mostly empty. There were a few other stragglers like us, taking another day to prepare for the journey. 

Today has been overcast and showery. We chanced it and did our washing this morning. Luckily the Gite has a spin contraption which worked amazingly. We washed by hand, put our clothes in the spin tub and everything was dry in an hour. Extra lucky as it’s been sprinkling ever since. It hasn’t stopped us from going out but we seriously, have all our fingers and toes crossed for better weather tomorrow when we start our walk over the Pyrenees. 

We’ve spent the day wandering the village streets, walking the ancient walls, chatting with friendly locals and getting to know the other walkers in our gite. I had morning tea of delicious canneles at a lovely pastry shop, lunch at a local  jamon deli and a post lunch glass of local wine. One of the other walkers, from the Lakes District in England, has a bottle of local red he wants to share later (you can’t refuse to help someone out!) and we’ve booked a table for dinner at a restaurant recommended by the local deli owner. Not a bad day so far. 

Well the cheap bottle of red was quite drinkable and the company very entertaining. It’s interesting to think these people we’re meeting today are all going in the same direction as us but we may never cross paths with some of them again. They’ve all been very nice people. The restaurant recommendation was a failure, sadly, but you can’t win them all. 

It’s an early night for us now. Big day tomorrow.