Saturday July 22, 5.9km/3.7mi

Cabanes Anaye (171.9km/1530m) (France) to Lescun Village (177.8/950m) (France)

We woke up to thick fog and wet tents, and even a pack of mules surrounding us. Their loud chewing and braying in the middle of the night didn’t help a good night’s sleep, either.

We headed out at 8am and pretty soon the fog started to burn off. It seems like the French side of the Pyrenees is always foggy!

After a kilometer we entered a very damp and green forest. It smelled like a fresh rainstorm and there were slugs and mud everywhere.

Upon exiting the forest, we had a grand view of the valley, a few hundred meters below us.

The trail descended on many really old switchbacks built with ancient stonework, which was neat to see. The valley was also surrounded by some extremely tall peaks, which was a little surprising because the fog had hidden them from view until the last minute.

We stopped at a stream, to rinse off our shoes and legs, which were covered in what was probably a mixture of mud and sheep poop.

The last part of the walk into Lescun village was relaxing on a deserted dirt road.

We could see the tiny village up ahead.

Walking thru the village was entertaining, as all the buildings looked to be hundreds of years old, and the streets were extremely narrow.

We dropped our bags off at our accommodation, called a gîte. I think it’s like a hostel but with meals, and maybe a little fancier.

After leaving Maison de la Montagne, we went food shopping, and spent a couple hours on a bench in the park, just eating and relaxing in the warm sun. I checked out their little free library z which had a surprising amount of mountain themed books.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at a cafe eating ice cream and pizza, and pretty soon it was 4pm and we could check-in to the gîte. We walked over and met the owner, and we got a nice tour of the place in French, while I would occasionally ask questions in Spanish. After a nice shower and washing some clothes, it was dinner time. It was a fun group dinner with a very lovely three course meal! There were like 15 people , so it took awhile to talk with everyone. By the time that ended it was 9pm and we all went to bed.