Lire en francais I booked myself a plane ticket to Amsterdam. I had been working for almost two months non-stop and needed a break from the mountain refuge. As the departure date drew closer, I felt less and less like returning to “civilization.” I didn’t want to see cars and bars. I wanted to stay in the mountains. So that’s what I did. The plane left without me. I filled my backpack with all the essentials for a trek across the mountains and walked towards the Breche, the weight on my back making my ascent slower than usual. Sparse tufts of grass grew on the frontal face of the moraine. The wind carried the roar of the waterfall from across the cirque, sounding like ever-crashing wave as it flailed and splashed its way down the face of the Marbore. I passed the widening gap in the glacier and veered away from the route, following the water that trickled over the smooth rocks to join a pool in a glacier-gouged limestone hollow. I stripped off and waded into the icy
Read this in English Cette conte est parue en deux parties dans la Revue Pyrénéenne d'octobre et decembre 2013 Cela faisait près de deux mois que je travaillais au refuge des Sarradets sans un seul jour de congé. Je ne me plaignais pas - C’était mon choix personnel et j’étais content de pouvoir travailler, mais prévoyant une pause nécessaire en milieu de saison, j'avais réservé un billet d'avion pour partir à Amsterdam. La date de départ approchant, loin d’avoir hâte de retrouver des amis aux Pays Bas je sentais de moins en moins l’envie de retourner à la "civilisation." Je ne voulais pas voir des voitures, ni passer mon temps dans des bars. Je voulais rester dans les Pyrénées. C'est donc ce que j'ai fait et l'avion est parti sans moi. J'ai rempli mon sac à dos avec tout le nécessaire pour une randonnée à travers les montagnes et je me suis dirigé vers la Brèche de Roland. J’étais rodé à cette courte montée d'environ deux cent
I had already spent more than two months looking for a job and didn't seem any closer to finding one. None of the small ads in the newspaper or the offers at the job centre fitted my peculiar professional profile. If I had been a plasterer or a bricklayer I could have found some work, but I wasn't so I didn't. "Your main advantage is your languages," said the counsellor at the job centre with a smile as she fluttered her eyelashes at me. "I mean not many people in this part of France are so talented to speak English and French and Dutch. The thing you have to understand though is that there's a reason for that. There's absolutely no need for languages here. Maybe Spanish a bit, but not really. Some people speak Basque, but that won't help you find a job. You really should think about expanding the geographical scope of your search. I think you'd have much more luck on the coast." The French Basque coast stretches from the Span
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