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Ax-les-Thermes

Our "home"

  Before we left France, we stayed with two other hosts - one of whom was absolutely wonderful.  Our hostess, D, lives in a small town in the eastern part of the Ariege.  She was working on converting a former truck garage to a bunkhouse/budget hostel for hikers/climbers/bikers.  The crew she hired to work on the building were almost all British expats, several of whom we already "met" on the HelpX website.  That is to say, we had seen their profiles as hosts (and even contacted one of them) but decided to contact D instead.  This was a terrific experience for so many reasons...our accommodations were comfy and luxurious,the scenery was beautiful, our co-workers were fun and a wealth of knowledge about the Ariege, our work environment was very laid-back (coffee and baked goodies every day at 10 am and 4 pm!), and our hostess was exceptionally generous, fun, intelligent, energetic and loved a good party.


We worked hard and provided lots of hours of labor, but in return we got more food than we could eat (and tasty, too), the use of a car on weekends, guided drives out to potentially interesting spots and outstanding hospitality.  We did lots of socializing and ingesting of adult beverages together and really felt like we were staying with a good friend, rather than a host.

Here are some photos of the project.  We built all of the IKEA cabinetry for the kitchen, sanded the columns, painted the cast iron plates and bolts, cleaned the grout off the shower tiles, put together the beds and put in the deck railing.

Le Refuge de Rive is now open for business.  Check out the website here

When we weren't working, sleeping or partying, we got out to enjoy the great tourist activities in that part of the Ariege, including the mind-blowing prehistoric cave paintings from 13,000 years ago at Niaux, the castle at Foix, local fairs, and the ski resort town of Ax-les-Thermes, which has hot spring pools dating back to the time of the Crusades, where returning Crusaders would treat their pestilent feet (of course, I did the same.)

Traditional shepherd garb from the lowlands

Typical Pyreneeen goats for excellent goat cheese

The castle at Foix

Freak snow storm