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 DAY SIX Spain, here we come! Today the objective was to reach Lleida in northern Spain. After about an hour´s drive we came to a town called Foix. There were at least two markets on in the town, but as it was Sunday, no real shopping possibilities. But quite pretty with a fortress on the hill.         Then through the Pyrenees. It can take up to two hours to "cross" the Pyrenees, and no photographs can really do them justice. Lleida is a city of conundrums. A city of 140,000 it has a ruined cathedral and a castle overlooking it. The city is lively (on Monday morning) and the "old city" is also "alive" on Sunday evening - loads of young men apparently selling everything from shoes to "smokes". Ignoring the advice of the hotel concierge we walked through the area and found some nice grafitti, but didn´t explore too many side streets before climbing up to the ruined cathedral and a nice restaurant where we enjoyed our first Tapas.         ...
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DAY FIVE

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 DAY FIVE From Cro-Magnon engravings to Waggons for the Dead Le Bugue may be a small town but it does have a flea market on a Sunday and it has cave engravings. We visited both before making our way south to Toulouse. Firstly we took in the flea market. Nicely situated just out of town and on the banks of a small river. Klein aber Fein as they say in German - small but nice.  Then we drove to the cave at Bara Bahau. The small car park was empty. The ticket office was closed. The place deserted 4 minutes before the first visit of the day. Then a car pulled up, a young lady arrived and opened up. We were the only visitors! We had a personal guided tour in English! Although not large, and not as exciting as the caves with paintings, the cave was rich in engravings. Apparently humans had found a cave, previously inhabited by bears (long before). On top of the bear´s paw scratchings the humans had drawn some figures and engraved all manner of animals. No photography allowed - but t...
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 DAY FOUR From Aurillac to Le Bugue First stop Conques. Tucked away in the hillsides of southern France, in the Occitaine Region, it is a lovely village surrounding the main church. This is the Abbey Church of  Sainte Foy, a young girl martyred for her faith - the story is told in a painting inside the church, but I needed the help of one of the very helpful young guides to decipher it. The village still has that Middle Ages feel, as large vehicles cannot enter, most visitors enter on foot, and there are almost no modern buildings. Only the road / pavements have been improved.                 The Abbey has a carving of the Last Judgement above the door. The right hand panel is for those who enjoyed life too much! A short stop at Figeac, the home of  J F Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, which enabled the Egyptian Hyeroglyphics to be understood properly. One of our objectives was to visit two estates with large gardens. ...
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