Bossost

We waved farewell to G, A, and the other G this morning and set off home. It's a long and scenic drive, and we stopped for a break in the pretty village of Bossost in the Val d'Aran, a strange little outpost of Occitanie which is officially in Spain despite being on the wrong side of the Pyrenees. Aranese is a dialect of Occitan, not Catalan.

We happily arrived just as the barmaid in the excellent tapas bar Urtau was setting out the lunchtime pintxos (extra). Absolutely delicious at around 2 euros each; they use the Basque system of counting up your cocktail sticks at the end to calculate the bill. Highly recommended. The little church is just across the square.

Later we stopped at a border venta for the inevitable booze, tuna, and good things in jars shopping, and eventually got home at about 4:30, greeted by the wailing of a cat who in the face of steamy 80% humidity and 35C temperature had retreated to the bath. It did rain a little later, clearing the air a bit, but we regretted the freshness of the mountains; we were so lucky with the weather, as despite forecasts we didn't get rained on at all. My Vall de Cardos album is here.