Euro-camping: it rained, and rained some more

We were delighted to be invited to join our Basque/Welsh friends in some "camping" this summer. So on Tuesday we headed off for 2 nights of "Euro-camping" (North Americans, think along the lines of KOA).

It started with a 3+ hour drive - and a stop at a restaurant beside the motorway for some vending machine soup ("decent" was the assessment)

We arrived at Esperbasque in time for drinks and pizza from the local truck. We were so far down the queue that shortly after ours was served the truck zoomed out of the carpark! Our lovely friends had lent us their extra tent and set it up! So all we had to do was snuggle down with some more of volume 7.
And it rained and then cleared and then rained and then was cloudy and then rained some more and cleared briefly and - well, you get the idea. It was an exceedingly damp camp out.

We went for a hike on Wednesday, and the kids played on the trampoline and petted the horses & puppies and swam in the pool both days.

The lovely, resilient Claire 

Her girls enjoying some saucisson with Sophie (but not the wine!)

Colleagues over the decades

Our view during one of the brief sunny spells

Much of the time was spent...

But by Thursday morning, we decided to strike the tents and head to Olivier & Claire's house just 40 mins away. There we had a lovely curry, a game of Labyrinth and admired the new family room at the back of their mountain house.

On the way home we decided to stop at Salies de Bearn to take the waters at the 19th century municipal pools. Lots of fun and affordable too!