Odeillo solar furnace

We have left the heat and the beaches of the coast and headed up into the Pyrenees. I came to Andorra about fifty odd years ago and LooseCanon has never been, so we’re now at a campsite in the middle of the mountains in Andorra. On the way and still in France we saw signs to the Four Solaire. A solar furnace. Well. We both remember learning about this in school. It is an area where the sun’s  rays at high altitude and in clear clean air are caught by solar panels, heliostats, which reflect them back to a huge parabolic reflector, and then back again to a central focus creating a huge amount of heat. It was built in the sixties and is used for research now.You can read all about it here.
 We saw signs about  it and then kind of just stumbled across it. 
It’s much cooler up in the mountains and we had a huge rainstorm this afternoon. Quite refreshing really.