Two Days and Two Incredilbe Climbs

We left Carcassonne (Languedoc-Roussillon) Tuesday morning and drove to Saint Gaudens (Haute Garonne). On the way we stooped at a site the Cathars built  called Montségur (Ariège Pyrénées). In the first picture you can see the huge structure on top of this isolated, tall rock spire.  The second one shows the view down to the parking lot.  It was a 45 minute walk (straight up - I guess there wasn't enough room on the rock for switchbacks).  It was so steep and slippery that it took us about twice as long to get back down.

This as all we saw once we got up there.

From a differnt viewpoint.

From Saint Gaudens, we drove to St-Lary-Soulan (Midi-Pyrénées).  To get there we drove to Luchon ( a Tour de France staring point) and up across the col de Peyresourde.  Between Luchon and St-Lary-Soulans, we stopped at Lac d'Oô (Hautes-Pyrénées).  That was a 2 mile and 320 meter climb in the Pyrenees - beautiful.

About a third of the way up, I took this picture of our parking lot.

There was no way to take in the whole scene, so I chose a mountain and lake combo.