Lovely Pair O' Knees *Part 1*

On Monday, we had a full day out - in search of snowy mountains...

From Carcassonne, to Limoux, Couiza to Quillan - where we joined the mountain pass down to Axat.

The pass is literally cut through the mountains & the overhangs mean it's a bit tricky for high vehicles...

On the other side of Axat, the pass climbs up & we finally see snow!

And icicles...

                     As with most of our days out from here, we hardly saw any other folks on the road.

From Languedoc into the Pyrenees.

The sky was beautiful yet again, although the temperature was around minus 7 degrees.

Long stretches of forest roads...

Snow covered lake - the town on the other side is called "Les Angles".

Breathtaking scenery...

All to ourselves.

We stopped for a picnic by this ski station.

The temperature rose to 10 degrees there & the sun was really strong...

Then it was on to Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via & a look at their Solar Cooker...

Built in the early 60s, it is used to test materials at high temps of up to 3000 degrees celsius.

The Cooker was built here because this area has over 300 days a year of sunshine...

These panels reflect the sun to the cooker & then back to a centralised point creating the intense heat.

We watched a demonstration of how it works & saw the sun burn through this metal in less than 5 seconds!

Weird place!

We then continued along the pass to Mont Louis...

Wonderful journey, although I did feel uneasy on this mountain pass - just so narrow, high up & exposed!!!

Will post more pics tomorrow.

Kay  :) 

PS. You can click on each photo for a closer look.

PPS. Sorry, Sime's idea for the cheesy titles...

Comments

  1. just Gai26 January 2011 at 14:24

    What a spectacular journey!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous26 January 2011 at 18:01

    Gorgeous pictures and I like the cheesy titles.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karin26 January 2011 at 21:32

    The scenery is quite magnificent. I haven't driven through the Pyrenees since my teens, but I do remember a lot of hair-raising bends, plus a cafe which wouldn't serve my dad until he had put his shirt on - it was summer and very hot in the car in the days before air-conditioning was normal.

    ReplyDelete

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Kay and Sime
xx

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