9. Chapter – Formiguères, one week of holiday

In the middle of the basic trainings each section has a week in the Pyrenes at the French-Spanish border. During this week you can try the mountain sports and relax a bit before the second part of the training. We had a chance because we were the last section who did the summer sports that year. One and a half month later the guys were already skiing on the slopes a few kilometer away from our chalet.

The weekend before going went pretty quickly by,

everyone was already excited about the week coming due to the corporal team who waited more the terrain than us. On Monday, we left early to reach our destination as quickly as possible. Nobody knew, except the sous-officers that we are going to have the first activity right after arriving, at the afternoon.

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We didn’t even have enough time to arrange our stuffs in the lockers like normally we do the first day of terrain, we couldn’t even check the house and the arounds, we took a plastic helmet on and went in the mountains by truck.

They divided us in three groups and explained what we are up to do. At the entry of a stalagmite cave, the instructors showed us the itinerary on a map and explained the safety regulations. I was in the second group so I had a bit time to check the history of this underground world.

The cave was located in the village of Fontrabiouse

and was discovered in 1958 during the exploitation of the marble quarry that dominates the village. A quarry rock blasting revealed an enormous hole setting on two levels, and displaying an extremely rich underground landscape. Inside the cave I didn’t see anything without a lamp, fortunately mine worked not like the Chinese’ one.

My boots became wet in 3 seconds because in autumn the level of the water increases inside the cave. We started to walk and the tourist guide was telling stories about the place, naturally in French so I didn’t understand too much.

Either way, I was much more occupied to stay on my feet because at the end of the underground corridor we had to switch the torches off and find the way out of the labyrinth. Everyone’s clothes became wet so the return at the opened plateau of the truck wasn’t the most comfortable place.

We were lodged in an 8 places room. The house was cool, and the view amazing. The head cook was a Hungarian caporal-chef who was making jokes permanently and gave us as much food as we wanted.

The nights we had to give service and I always have been volunteer to work with him in the kitchen. I took up at least 6 kilos during that week thanks to the caporal-chef and his Central-east European food.

The next day we went hiking with an adjutant-chef of the French Gendarmerie.

He was a member of the PGHM, which is a mountain specialized unit of the French military police. The way until the top of the mountain wasn’t the hardest thing I have ever done but it wasn’t the easiest either.

That was the first time i did via ferrata. (Via ferrate is a protected climbing route found in the mountains. The essence of a modern via ferrate is a steel cable which runs along the route and is periodically -every 1 to 10 meters- fixed to the rock.) On the hill we took platoon photo, constructed a small pyramid and came down by another way.

The third day started with a running. From 10AM we got a presentation of the regiments of the Legion by future-sergeants. I have always found 2°REG the most interesting, because of its mountain specialty and that regiment kept always a whole company in Afghanistan back then. I wanted to participate in that mission as a legionnaire. Since France has called all of his units back from Asia at the beginning of 2013, so I couldn’t go…

The best day during my first 4 months in Castel was when we did canyoning.

It’s a sport of jumping into a fast-flowing mountain stream and allowing oneself to be carried downstream at high speed. It’s an extremely popular summer thrill in the Alps and the Pyrenes. Our canyoning gear included climbing hardware, static or semi-static ropes, helmets, wetsuits, and specially designed shoes, packs, and rope bags.

The water was pretty cold in October but still enjoyable. At the end everybody was tired but we had to dry our cloths before giving it back to the responsible in Formiguères. The afternoon we had two hours to use the phone-box or drink a beer at the bar with the instructors.

The left some days we were biking, did an orientation challenge in the village around a lake, collected mushrooms in the forest and watched movies every night. On Friday we had a whole morning in a wellness center which was a good possibility to relax. Especially in the pool with underwater music and the Finnish saunas.

At the end of the week, it was a physical pain to leave that place. However we had to go back to Castelnaudary for the remaining 2 months…