I’m writing from my apartment in Font Romeu France, sitting in the only place my laptop works. After being spoiled in the USA with wireless everything, I now have an actual cable connecting my macbook to the wall in order to make it do things. Weird. The internet is so slow that I can’t talk to Jesse (who is back in Oregon) on Skype without sounding like a robot, so I’m going to have to find myself a good old calling card tomorrow. Do they still make those? I don’t have a phone in my apartment. Do they still have payphones?
Font Romeu is nestled in the French Pyrennes, two hours north of Barcelona. Athletes come here because its one of the only altitude places in western Europe with a track right in town, gym facilities, an airport that’s fairly accessible (2 hours), and a lake 20 minutes away at 5000 feet where you can do lower altitude workouts and runs. The fact that it is gorgeous and peaceful are just bonuses.
This is my second summer here, and the apartment building the athletes traditionally rent is empty except for us runners, for the most part. We have the run of the place, except that there is nothing to run really. I’ll fill you in on daily dorm life another time when there isn’t anything fun to write about. For now, I want to write about how the first five days left me feeling like this:
…which set me on a mission to find these elusive, locals only, natural mineral baths (read: nude Frenchies). Bridget Franek and I went down to the Tourism Office and started inquiring about these springs we heard about, but they kept trying to point us in the direction of the obvious tourist ones. Of course being a hippy who likes the ala natural ones, I kept pressing the point, using sign language and universal grunts (I don’t speak French). Eventually we had a language breakthrough and he drew me a nice little picture on one of those cartoon maps of the area to a destination right near the tourist hot springs that didn’t previously exist there. All we had to do was head toward the tourist springs, turn right off the main road on the squiggly line and walk over the parallel lines (bridge? river?) and up and over some dotted lines for 10 minutes. Nice!
A bunch of us had the afternoon off training today, so we piled into the cars and set out for the healing springs. With only a couple wrong turns, we arrived at the turnoff to the tourist hot springs with good spirits. But now that we were surveying the area with our eyes, the hand drawn portion of the map didn’t seem as illuminating as I thought it would. We split up and set off in different directions: the girls to the trail for the freebie baths, and the boys to check out the tourist baths.
The girls' first attempt was way way off, but the trail was nice...
...it led to a waterfall where we cooled off...
We made our way back to the car and the boys pulled up at that very moment. Did they find the tourist springs? Yes. Did they go in? No. Why not? In France, you aren’t allowed in public swim areas unless you have a speedo. Even Nick’s tiny little racing shorts wouldn’t cut it. He and Ben straight up got kicked out! Defeated but not discouraged, they decided to go home and try another day. That left Bridget, Jemma and I to head on up to those very same springs with our appropriate swim attire and enjoy a soak. We’d take anything at this point.
Follow the leader!
Well, turns out we were one euro short of being able to afford to go in, so once again we were faced with defeat. Then Jemma encouraged me to use my creative language skills again to ask one of the employees of the paid baths for directions to the elusive free baths. If I were in America, I’d never do something that cheeky, but what the hell? I ran into an old woman who offered to drive us to the correct fork in the road and mime directions for the rest of our journey. After her job was done, she confessed she had never actually been there, but wished us luck!
At that point we thought we were screwed, but we gave it one more shot. Sure enough, the rest of the adventure couldn’t have gone better. Here is the breakdown in photos of our epic afternoon:
Along the trail
discovering the baths
satisfying my inner hippy
taking the "faster" way back to the car
Stopping to take photos, and practicing some plyos...needs some work I think.
I just had to put this photo in because I tried to do this like 12 times. Extension is improving Coach!
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I love the photos. I’m actually a bit jealous, as I love France and would maybe not give an arm or leg to be there, but would definitely jump at the chance to go again!
Fabulous photos! Thanks for the story! Glad you found the hot springs, looks much better than the touristy ones. The Pyrenees are so beautiful, I would LOVE to spend weeks there with nothing to do other than run and sit in healing springs. We were in Font Romeu last September and hung out for an afternoon in the touristy hot springs in Llo. I believe we also ran from Font Romeu to the lake you mentioned and then back – that was my brilliant idea, and it was the only time I have ever seriously thought I might not be able to finish a run (uphill + boulders + altitude = “can’t we, like, call a taxi or something?”). It was also the only night I was actually able to finish a dinner consisting of the local cuisine: would you like some cheese and potatoes with your cheese and potatoes? Yum…
My tourist tip: whatever you do, don’t go to Andorra. That’s how we ended up in Font Romeu in the first place, we were driving north from Barcelona and had planned to spend the night in Andorra but it was so horrid that we just kept driving.
Heather! That’s insane. That lake is a 1000 foot drop on crazy roads! I could only imagine the hunger that would follow. Thanks for the tip about Andorra too. Some of us were thinking of making a trip over there to visit, but I’ll probably pass on that. I’ve also heard sketchy stuff the last two days about dirty athletes buying their drugs there, and clearly being anywhere near that is not up my alley! I’ll stick to Llivia and Puigcerda for day trips.
Ha! After I posted that I remembered there were actually two lakes, so maybe it wasn’t as crazy as it sounded (though it was still far from the conventional definition of a good idea, even before the clouds set in…). The one I mean was called Lac des Bouilleuses or something like that. Beautiful run/rock climb/slog. I was so sure it was going to be the final thing to drive my boyfriend away, especially when it came to the part about dodging random horses and cows on a rocky trail in seriously cloud-limited visibility conditions, but strangely it did not 🙂
The main thing I remember about Andorra apart from the overwhelming hideousness is that literally every pharmacy had an extensive window display of impotence remedies. But yeah, if sketchy people are getting sketchy substances there, that’s even more reason to stay away.
I have been trying to acces this site for a while. I was using Chrome then when I tried Safari, it woerkd just great? Just wanted to bring this to your attention. This is really good website. I have a few myself. I really admire your design. I know this is off topic but,did you make this layout yourself,or purchase from somewhere?
Brings back memories of when my hippie daughter, an acutal UO grad version, spent time 2 summers ago traveling Europe. She actually lived, well squatted, in a cave near Alhambra, Spain. A true hippie enclave.
Do you know your racing schedule yet? Looking forward to following your racing and other adventures.
Isn’t that what Joni Mitchell did when she wrote the album “Blue”? I’m solidifying my racing schedule as we speak. It looks like I may be confirmed in Stockholm and London 5k’s (end of July and a week later on August 5th or 6th.) I am so EXCITED because I freaking love both of those races. Now I just need every day I can get to get fit!
Stanford grads can be hippies? I thought those were the Berkeley people…
Ha ha, very funny. Why did you have to bring up the weenies? 🙂
How awesome!!! I just got back from the Dominican where we swam in a natural watering pool….it was absolutely amazing! Glad you found yours and best of luck in Europe!
thank you, that was very entertaining. My plyometric sessions don’t look anything like that, sadly. I must be doing something wrong ;-(
At some hippy hot springs high on the side of the San Luis valley, CO, yesterday: those folks were on the far side of hippy, as a practicing canoeist I’m usually the crunchiest granola in any given group, but felt like the man in the grey flannel suit out there.. The Hobo hot springs in Glenwood are free, but the problem is they tend to be occupied by hobos. Hm.
the last time I needed a calling card was in 2006 Lausanne, it worked fine in the campsite payphone.. good luck..
Two questions:
1 . “If I were in America, I’d never do something that cheeky”.
Since when?
2. Bathing suits?
don’t get discouraged by the letsat races. Race and try to figure out whats wrong. Fitness and talent do not go away. Sorry to be in your business but I have been in the same situation many times. Leave the pressure home and have fun with it , it will come. You have a 1.45 and a 3.35 in you!!!
Chère Lauren,
This I find to be the best blog about the running sport I know. So intelligent.
I appreciated so much the article about “rabbiting”. You in French we call the rabbit “le lièvre”, the hare in English. You know, like the tortoise and the hare.
So you train in France, too. Not to be “cheeky” (smile) … but should you ever desire some French leçons … .
I wish you much success in Europe and especially in the world championships.
Kind regards,
Marc-Antoine