We have one goal today: check out of our hotel and get out of this town. We hope that includes picking up our car from the shop, over 50 kilometers away in Foix, but we think we will go to that town nonetheless. We had a great time in Ax-les-Thermes, but 4 nights here is too many. Even the locals are starting to look at us oddly, like why are these people still here?

Oly and I wake up early and go to breakfast. Lillian and Stefan join once they decide to stop being lazy bums. We have to pack up and get out this morning. Again. It feels very deja vu.

//Stefan Note: It feels like that, ground hog day plug deja vu plus all that

We have no idea where we are going. As we check out of the hotel, we hear from our friends, who are kindly acting as interpreters, and learn that the shop in Foix needs an expensive part to fix the car. If they order it immediately, they expect to have it next Monday or Tuesday. What?!?!?! This is so disappointing. We are ready to leave. We cannot stay here another week!

So we start researching every option. If we want to take the train to Barcelona (only 3 hour drive from here!), we will have to change trains 3 times, and it will take over 8 hours. Hmmm…not really feeling that option. We could take a train back to Toulouse, but we aren’t too excited about that either. The nearest car rentals are not easy to get to, but we start calling them and try to see how we could make this work.

We decide we are taking the train to the town nearest the car rental, Pamier. It leaves at 2:15. Then we will walk to the car rental, about 4 kilometers. On the train, we will see if we can actually rent a car from there.

//Stefan Note: Yes, we are packing up and riding a train to nowhere hoping maybe somewhere in the Pyrenees they can rent us a car

It looks like it online, but we are taking a gamble that there will be a car there for us. We don’t have much time, so we hurry back to our hotel, repack some things into one suitcase to drag along on the train, in case for whatever reason we end up staying in that town for a day or two, and run back to the train station. It’s slightly raining, and the kids are awesome about having to hustle.

The train ride to Pamier is actually really pretty. We don’t enjoy it as much as we should because Stefan is so worried this was the wrong decision. I am on the phone with Expedia, Avis, etc. trying to secure a car. We don’t want to walk all the way there if there is not car for us. Thankfully it seems to be working out, language barrier and all.

We arrive in Pamier and start walking. It’s not raining too badly, and Lillian only falls once. So far, so good.

But when we pass a good looking boulangerie, the kids and I decide we will sit and wait for Stefan to retrieve the car. The kids have some ice cream while I have a coffee and lemon tart. Okay, Oly eats most of the lemon tart. It’s nice to sit down after all the rushing around we’ve done so far today.

//Stefan Note: I walk in the wrong direction for a K and end up at a RV lot and inside there is the Avis i was looking for.

At least an hour passes before Stefan drives up in our rental car, a Citroen that he has been in love with for awhile. He is so happy. It’s small, but we will make it work.

We drive the 30 minutes to Foix where our car is being repaired. I’m surprised to see the front is at least popped. Maybe they are actually doing something. We pick up the car seats from our mini-van as well as a few other things, then we are off again, headed back to Ax-les-Thermes for the rest of our luggage. Wow, we did every piece of this drive four days ago, in the hopes we were going to Barcelona.

As soon as we got the car (because we really weren’t sure whether that was going to work out0, I follow-up with our Airbnb host in Barcelona to see if she was able to re-let our place (and refund us some of our money) or if it was still available to us. It just so happens that it relet today. Not good timing for us. So now we can either find a new place in Barcelona for 3 nights (we have a place booked in Montpellier starting Saturday), or we can just use this as an opportunity to explore something new (and maybe closer). We opt for the latter. We want more than 3 days there, and we figure it’ll be easier to fly to Barcelona from NYC than see some of these other small places in France. So I’m flipping through my Lonely Planet France book trying to pick a town.

//Stefan Note: Its a stick, say goodbye to that transmission.

We get back to Ax-les-Thermes at about 7pm What a day. All to rent a car. We pick up our stuff from the hotel, and I’m surprised to see everything fits in the car! Hooray!

While Stefan grabs some sandwiches for dinner, I call around to some hotels in my guidebook. We have a room in Ceret, France, where there’s a great modern art museum. Perfect! We’ll drive there, and then figure out the next two days.

We turn next to the church. We are surprised because it doesn’t seem to be the main road. We are going up the mountain. Thus ensues  the craziest drive of my life. I mean, this beats riding in our van on top of a tow truck down switchbacks! Thank goodness Stefan is driving. I am holding on for dear life as we take tight turns on a single lane road cut into the side of the mountain. This goes on for at least an hour. We go up and up until we actually summit a mountain! Seriously! Then down the other side, which is even more terrifying. The switchbacks are so narrow and steep that Stefan is certain they wouldn’t be legal roads in the states. There is no choice but to push on. We are in the middle of nowhere, driving through the Pyrenees. There are cows along the road, and we finally see a few small villages. I can’t believe people live out here.

After almost two hours of driving we start going through more small towns. They are so quaint! It’s 9pm, and the sun sets at 9:30pm. It’s already pretty dark in these mountains, and we have one more hour to our destination. At this point we pass a huge castle on the side of the road. There are lots of cars and people. When we see a sign stating it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, we decide we have to stop and see what it is.  

This is Villefranche-de-Conflent, an old walled city that acted as a strategic defensive point between Spain and France. It’s so cool. They even have a little playground!

We start calling the hotels we see there in town and decide to find a place on Booking or Expedia in the area. We don’t want to drive the additional hour and arrive close to 11 somewhere. Plus, it’d be really cool to come back and explore this area more! I find a place just 10 minutes away. Lillian is super tired, so I’m glad we decided to do this. We can always go to Ceret tomorrow.

We arrive in Vernet les Bains around 10pm, with me navigating…incorrectly. I’d put the town name in my phone instead of the hotel’s address, so we drive up and around the town before I realize we are in the wrong place. There are many people walking around the streets, which makes us more excited to stay in this cute little town. But Stefan has to drive back down this hill to the hotel, going down extremely narrow roads where people have to hug doorways to avoid us. We are both holding our breath the entire time. It’s insane.

We finally arrive at the Hotel Princess and are greeted by the owners, who are super nice. The husband shows us to our room and then helps Stefan park.  This hotel is so so soooooo much better than the last one. It’s beautiful. Our host explains that because tomorrow is Bastille Day, the town is celebrating all night, with live music and lots of partying. And in ten minutes there will be a fireworks show. We ask where, and he leads us to our balcony. Really?! This is too good to be true.

Lillian is so so tired. She is begging to go to bed. So I help put on her nightgown and then the fireworks begin. We all sit on our balcony, and it’s like we have our very own private fireworks show! We are the absolute closest people can get to the fireworks, and they are perfectly framed in front of us. It’s amazing! We are all completely enchanted. We got so lucky with this amazing hotel.