Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The proposal

As you can see, we're a little behing on our blogging. We've spent the last few days in the beautiful pyrenees. It's now Tuesday and we haven't written since Saturday evening.

Sunday we awoke to an overcast sky - again for the pyrnees. We took a gamble a headed for the Col du Tourmalet. Matt and Karen before our departure had said there are two valleys to the Tourmalet- one more beautiful than the other. Mark unable to ride, was determined to get a look at it. The participation ride - mondo velo was to close the roads to the top later that day.

As we ascended, we quickly worked out where we were - the beautiful side - steep drops, fresh Icy cold mountain water below us, big green trees. It was still overcast as we headed to the top and then the clouds broke and we popped up above the cloud line that had covered the valley for the last few days.

The motor homes had already settled in the available carparks - this was Sunday 18th and the tour wasn't due through until - 20th. There were little mobile home cities and not much space for another. The car parks were full!!

The intent was to have breakfast at the top of the Col, however we pulled up close to the top with space as a premium. For breakfast but Mark had other plans...

He pulled out the pink champagne bottle and Jac thought we were having a champagne breakfast with the collection of croissants.

It was pretty simple after that - he popped the cork, we went outside to have a toast to our trip and on one knew he said - "I suppose I should ask you... will you marry me?"

Standing on the edge of the no standing Zone above the valley and a sheer drop below, Jac had no other option than to say yes.

Worried about the gendarmes and getting caught on closed roads, we hurriedly jumped back in the camping car, crossed the Col, were amazed at the traffic ascending and had breakfast with champagne as we were safely down the mountain.

As for the remainder of the day- we spent the afternoon watching most of the tour in a lovely bar in Aspet - 12 km from the base of the Portet D'Aspet, ascended the Portet D'Aspet, payed hommage to Fabian Casartelli who died tragically 15 years to the day and then joined our friends we met at the Avis in Paris in a campsite on the top of the Portet D'Aspet.

A lovely day, great views, great company and a great holiday. What more can one ask for??

1 comment:

  1. Wahoo Jacqui and Mark, congratulations on "The Proposal" Fantastic news and I'm sure you didn't need the threat of being pushed off a cliff to say yes either Jac. Love reading about your holiday, keep up the good work. Ah You're such a romantic Mark! France, champagne, pyrenees, proposal, all because she had PMT? :)

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