The Trip to the Mountains...And the Death March

My host family, the Halary's happen to have a long line of home owners in the South of France area. One of their "family homes" happens to be in the mountains near our house in Ustaritz. I can safely say it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

Our dog (Voyou) loves the mountains its the one place he can run free and he gets a lot of food. We go up to the mountains usually to have dinner parties with my host parents friends. The house is being remodeled because it was neglected for a number of years, so we eat on the porch and we make the food over a fire pit (my host father makes the best steak over a fire you have ever tasted!)

My parent do a bang up job of putting on a dinner party. We hauled an entire truck load of food and we prepared it all...but not before we did the death march. My host mother presented our 4 kilometer walk (yes I map quested it!) as a "little hike". I was wearing skinny jeans, no sleeves, and vans sneakers...to say the least I was unprepared for a long...uphill...treacherous....through a stream walk. And I forgot my camera so I have no pictures...so sad. The walk ended in great reward. A beautiful sunset greeted us back at the house.

And we had a dinner that was fit for a king....and my favorite part of the evening we sang. Everyone tried (with not much luck) to teach me basque country songs. I have to tell you Basque is the oddest language I have ever heard. It is not Latin or Greek based.....and experts don't really know where it comes from. All the same the night was filled with a lot of laughter and merriment and I can't wait until we go to the mountains again!