They were really wonderful people, and during our time staying there we discovered an interesting coincidence. Elisabeth worked for a conservation group that had recently been focusing on bear-livestock interactions, and they were trying to come up with some good strategies to protect the bears while preventing livestock predation. In their desperation to come up with some answers they paid a lot of money to have Chris Servheen - coming from the university in Missoula - teach them some methods to deal with the bears. To put it lightly - they were not happy with the information he had to offer (or lack of), especially considering the money they paid.
The second day we were in the area, Elisabeth suggested we go to Lescun for a hike. This little gem on the French-Spanish border is probably one of the most beautiful places in the area. After a short drive south from Oloron, you get off the road and drive up a steep and narrow set of switchbacks to a small village. From that village is a spectacular view of craggy peaks and green meadows.
We started hiking without any real plan about what our final destination would be. The paths were well worn and we were not concerned about getting lost, so we just started heading towards the peaks. It was clear that the meadows were heavily grazed by cattle and sheep, and as we began climbing higher we began to see signs warning you not to approach the sheep for danger of being attacked by the Great Pyrenees.
We got to the drainage below the rocky crags and sat down to have a short lunch. It was well into the afternoon, so we knew that if we wanted to get to the pass we would need to go quickly. We started climbing the scree slopes, ignoring the comical warning signs scrawled on the rocks next to the path.
"Estamos muertos hay delante" - We are dead over there!
We got to the top, and realized that we were actually at the Spain-France border! It was pretty funny for us, since we had only been in France for about 24 hours. We played around; jumping back and forth across the line of the signs. The whole hike turned out to be spectacular.
