annecamino

hei,

I wonder if anyone is driving from Calais to the Pyrenees
on 30.6.2010 afternoon,
and wants some company,

and has space for a mother with two teenagers
who are going hiking from Lourdes over the Pyrenees to Spain (part of Camino Santiago de Compostela),

could you give us a lift ?

We'll pay for some of the petrol so you will even save some money while
helping the environment, and lessening the carbon foot print...



anne

As I am a new member, I can not open my private messages
until I have made three posts, so...

so here some more info, we might even relocate to Pyrenees.

a.

and here is the third posts,

my daughter is already 16, and I wonder about the school system,
what are the options for her?
(her command of french and spanish is adequate).

a.

Ka Ora!

Hi Anne Welcome to the forum If you get any problems please contact one of our Forum Leaders Mitzyboy is the Moderator for the France Section and Im the Concierge.

We have a Friendly well established group of people living in France who will be happy to offer you advice, The Pyrenees is a loverly region of France which myself and a couple of other users live in, So ask away if you have any questions. You will notice next to each post on the righthand side is a button marked quote, Next to it for about 25 minutes rests also an edit button which allows you to amend posts.


Its typically not a good idea to stick email links on the board as within a day or two you will be spammed into oblivion.

Martin Parker

Hi Anne

Welcome to the forum.

The Pyrenees are a fantastic place to live. We love it here.

I cannot advise about schooling, as we do not have children, but I am sure someone will come along soon.

annecamino

Thank You Martin,

I know that The Pyrenees is more than a wonderful place to live.
many intellectual and aware people are relocating there,
for a good reason...safe and clean up there in the mountains.

Think about all the legends of Holy Grail, Secrets of Knight Templars,
Cathars and Modern Masonics associated to that special area,

and Maria apparitions (Lourdes), Holy Waters, Thermal spas,

or ufo sightings..

Perhaps it is the ley lines directly under the Millky Way that
made the Kings and Queens and Holy men to walk the Camino over the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela.

As I am not that good at gathering material wealth I will start with walking the camino from Lourdes while looking for good place to relocate.

a.

le plumber

So the rest of us are stupid then ??

annecamino

Just not guided to that special area,
or smart and special enough not to need any special area "vibrations"
-

When I read those guides of the Pyrenees, I noticed that there seem to be many abandoned villages and farms, wonder why ?

Is the land in those villages privately owned ?

How about restoring those villages ? Eco living, self -sufficient communities,
with sun panels, all that, you know.

I am not after some hippie communities, (read; losers, irresponsible social types ) more like practical, hard working eco conscious people working together in harmonious existence. (Findhorn in Scotland had a good start...
but... I spent two days there to observe.)

anyone interested ?

a.

annecamino

Hi,
one week left and no one has yet offered a lift.

To make things even more difficult and somewhat complicated

I may need to confess that we are taking our kitty with us for our hike.
She travels sitting on our shoulders when not walking herself,

so I could not book a night train via Paris,
as it seems to be all too difficult, dangerous and expensive with a kitty.

So, let's see what will manifest.

and p.s.
does anyone need a good housekeeeper for a summer living near the Pyrenees ?

a.

Ka Ora!

Does the Cat have its Pet Passport?

annecamino

Yep,
with pretty photo on the passport,
rabies vaccination, microchip...all that.

(I have once moved from Scandinavia to USA and back with two cats (and two kids) years ago, and that was a real show, as in the Customs in New York they wanted to "x-ray" the cats' carrierboxes, and I had to remove the cats, who had pooped...and the customs officer was allergic to cats and got an asthma attack while I tried to clean the cats and the carrierboxes...

and the travel agency sold me places for the cats inside the cabin, and this time the airhostess was allergic...)

anne

dmu

Hi
Have you tried posting on the Spain forum? There are often expats driving down through France and you might just strike lucky, although it's cutting it a bit fine now...
Don't forget to mention the presence of the cat - as you've already found out in the past, a lot of people are allergic to them!

dmu

Hi again
Not so difficult. You can book on the SNCF website
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-t...ultats?hid=8DI
and print out your tickets in whichever station in Calais you leave from.
Dangerous??? As the above link shows, there are two day trains, if you're worried about your safety in a night train.
Expensive, yes, but that's the TGV service and your puddy-tat shouldn't add much to the cost of 3 tickets.
I haven't checked prices, but Tarbes-Lourdes airport has low-costs from Stansted and Manchester
http://www.tlp.aeroport.fr/voyageur/
As no one is coming forward to give you all a lift, train or plane seem to be the only alternatives if you're bent on doing that particular Walk....

annecamino

Safety in a night train, not any of my worries

I mean, if we take the train from Calais to Lourdes we need to change trains in Paris and walk from one station to another through busy Paris traffic with all our bagbags, which is just fine, but we tend to worry about the cat escaping .......


To be honest, it is very expensive for me, to buy tickets for one adult, and two teenagers...
We want to travel, experience the world although as a single mom,
low income in this moment, many may think that we should not as we cannot afford to pay the normal/ tourist prices...but we do.

Thank You, you are very kind,
but low cost airlines do not take animals, so with a cat that route is impossible (and we do not have any friends who could look after our cat.) and I fear flying...


It is the journey not the destination,

though I am quite determined to relocate to that pyrenees area this summer,

Luckily, each one of us have two healthy feet, good sense of humour,
fearless mind (as you attract what you fear) and common sense...
what else ?

so we can walk all the way from Calais to Pyrenees if that is what it takes,
wonder how long it will take ?

a.

Ka Ora!

BA fly to Toulouse which is not really that far from Lourdes and there are plenty of direct connecting options between the two places.

And it not flying you should fear, Just the manner in which you make contact with the ground again.

dmu

There's a direct Métro (ligne 4) that will take you from the Gare du Nord to Montparnasse and save on shoe leather, for about 1€ each...

Seriously though, when you say "relocate" to the Pyrénées "this summer", do you mean you won't be returning to the UK (?) after your walk? In which case you might do well to start another thread to ask advice on ALL aspects of moving to France with two teenage children, e.g. minimum income for survival, schooling, ...
Good luck, whatever!
P.S. Have just seen your thread on the Spain forum and am impressed by your proposed itinerary! (I imagined you'd be going westwards.) Let us know if you decide to settle on the Spanish side of the border....

annecamino

I know...I love PARIS, haven't been there since June 2005,
when I took my children there for a few days before we walked around Loire
valley for one month, and that was a real adventure.

(when we returned home my childrens' father was not that happy, as I had phoned him and begged some money... what happened to me ? I used to be so proud and conservative ? almost boring housewife ? )

With the years, I have learned to trust my own intuition,
and it says that this the next step..and I am really BORED here in UK, last winter I was really depressed with all that cold and rain, so no more that!

I am very devoted mother,
whatever I do I put my heart into it,
so I try to educate my children also myself, giving them experiences of different ways of living etc.(so they won't be that judgemental etc.) and the best way to learn new languages is to live in the country where it is spoken.

I guess I am doing fine, as my children have always been in the best set in their forms, whichever country we may have lived.

(my daughter is finishing her GCSEs in a week.)

It is not my way of doing things.(though I am very practical person, not a risk taker, quite realistic.)

I get a work, and put the children in the local school,
and live in a tent until we have money to rent an apartment...(so we need to move during the summer before it gets cold.)

(I am hard working.)



Yes, we love walking, the journey starts with one step...
(Summer 2007 we walked most parts from Land's End back to Scotland...)

anne