Snow at last....6 November 2008

Snow melting and running down the side of the mountain

Snow capped mountain


Our first sight of blobs of snow

Samuel was amazed how heavy snow is

Our first attempt at a snow man

We passed this shrine on the roadside

Today the kids saw snow for the first time. To describe it as exciting would be a major understatement. But after about ½ hr we had to call it quits playing in the snow because the kids were both totally soaked and wet and it was cold and starting to rain. Definitely something we will be doing again. The kids loved it. But we need to have the proper gear, our Mount Isa winter woollies just don’t cut it.

We drove to Laruns from Pau and called in to the tourist office to enquire about walks we could do that weren’t too adventurous for the kids (or us for that matter). We decided to drive higher into the Pyrenees to drive closer to where we could see snow and we weren’t disappointed. Our first blobs of snow were awesome according to Samuel - Samuel said it was his best day in France so far. We had to stop the car and get out and feel it. It was fun seeing our first blob of snow. We kept driving and not 2 minutes further up the road there was snow everywhere. All over the sides of the road and up the hills in piles. So we pulled up to have our lunch and the kids played in the snow. Ella said the snow wasn’t soft but it was cold and icy and the kids’ hands got really cold.

Driving up into the mountains gave me the creeps abit. There's a deep drain on one side of the road and the edge of the cliff on the other. The road was wet from rain and there was a lot of water running down the mountain side and along the edges of the road from melting snow and quite a bit of water over the road in places. There's no shortage of water here. The rivers and streams were gushing with water after all the snow and rain.