in love with these mountains

My husband and I spent most of last Saturday walking. Starting from a place called “Hospice de France” (alt. 1385), the path went zigzagging all the way up, past some beautiful lakes to a v-shaped mountain pass: Port de Venasque / Portillon de Benasque (alt. 2444). I was really happy to cross the border into Spain using this ancient route - for me it was a dream come true. On the Spanish side we got lost while trying to find a nearby pass “Port de la Picade”… While wandering trying to find the way we saw a marmot in the distance. At first it looked like a marmot, but it was so still I had doubts… perhaps it was a rock? Until it moved and off it went running down the mountain side, wiggling its fluffy tail. Later we met some Spaniards who kindly sent us in the right direction. After this second mountain pass we got to another very interesting section of our walk: the path was on a ridge along the border between France and Spain, with beautiful mountain views left, right and centre. I was so happy to be doing all of this with the best possible companion, under the clearest of blue skies. As I was wondering if life could get any better, I found a heart shaped stone:

The way down was very hard on the knees. We covered 22km and our elevation gain was 1890m. We spent about 8h doing this circular walk. We took our time with pauses to eat, to talk to other walkers, to enjoy the views, and to take loads of photos. This is Portillon de Benasque (from the Spanish side, climbing La Picade):

And I took this one during our descent - the tiny building in the distance is “Le Grand Hotel” at Superbagneres: 

Today thanks to “My Nature Photography” I came across a lovely project: Random Hearts - this is my entry.