The Pallars
Region of Spain
Part One: From Entering the Pallars To Lladros
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This was where Barthelemy grew up. It was also to be Paradise for our Fairytale couple. This is a very important location for our story, and the heart of my trip into the Pyrenees. This is looking toward Andorra from the southernmost valley of France.
I promised my wife I would not go to Andorra without her, she loves that place, I like it too. Some Andorra pictures can be found on this website (just click here). Another reason I did not go through Andorra, however, is that I had done that already. So I took the road to the east of Andorra south into Spain, turned west toward the Pallars region. Entered the Pallars in a northbound direction, and exited to the north back into France and then turned east again to Tarascon. A humongous square path.
I interrupted that path with an overnight stop in the Cerdagne Valley that was a bit of a detour, but well worth
it (see tourist information site links in my Travelogue).
This photo looks back to the valley that I just came through, crossing over the first high range of the Pyrenees. Andorra lies behind the peaks in the background:
And this is what I saw looking south towards Spain, which was located both south and west of me at this point:
I did not take any other pictures until I began to climb the mountains that would usher me into the Pallars. The next two pictures look south from halfway up, and again near the top of the first range I crossed in a westerly direction. This range lies just west of La Seu d'Urgell, a big city:
After crossing a second mountain range, I finally turned north and saw the Pallars announced on a roadsign:
Descending into the Pallars yielded some nice vistas like this one:
The views were quite exciting, including several small villages on hilltops. But driving on this road was a bit demanding, so no pictures were taken again until of a sudden I saw Lladros looming up in front of me! Well, what's wrong with a bit of exaggeration?
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the old town and its church dating back to the time of our Fairytale and even beyond. Naturally I had to walk the town and not drive it. The following sequence follows my path. First the road to the church:
Next several views of the church and cemetery. The church is where, in our Fairytale, Barthelemy is trained to be a priest, so it is very important that we see it as he saw it. It has changed little since Barthelemy served here.
There are several graves in the church yard. The live-flower decoration on this one caught my eye:
What was the view from the church? A view unchanged for way more than 700 years if we look past the roads and roofs.
The road away from the church was as quaint as the one taking me to the church, and this view may have also been the same 700 years ago:
A more modern, but still old, part of town is just a few steps away from the church:
The mountains to the west sported a touch of snow:
I walked away from town in the opposite direction from the one I had used to come into town, and was rewarded with this view back:
This page is getting way too long, and there is still a long way to go, so here is a LINK to its continuation page.
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