Military Base in the Moutains

Back to France for this entry. King Louis the fourteenth of France realised that France needed to reinforce its border with Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. He sent a military expert to the area to find an ideal location for constructing a fortress. This was in 1679. So the military expert found the perfect location on a hill in the mountains. In 1679 work began and by 1681 the fortress was complete. It took only two years to build this gigantic fortress, with some 4500 labourers.

A model of the fort

The military base is more like a city and can house up to 2500 soldiers. The National Centre of Training Commando use it today for the training of French and foreign armies. Each year more than 3000 trainees pass though this place, for mountain training.

Entering "military property"

The entrance to the fort

Before the tour the young - but extremely informative - tour guide told us that photography was not permitted on the tour. The tour was conducted only in French so I did not understand every detail because my French is not perfect. At one point of the tour, the guide permitted us to take photographs. This was in the cold room where the underground well was situated. There was a huge wooden wheel which was used to pull buckets of water up from under the ground. There was a pool of water in which barrels and crates were placed to keep perishable food cool.

Wooden wheel to pull underground water

The refrigeration pool

After the visiting the "cooling room" we gathered outside to continue the tour. I decided to take a quick photo of the entrance to the cooling room as the tour guide and group walked off in the distance ahead of me. Sneaky... No risk for us Africans who take huge risks every day just being alive. Nuria and Felix saw me taking the shot and came rushing back to tell me to stop. I had already taken a photo. I got a mean military machine in the photo too. They seemed quite shocked at my taking a photo and told me that I might end up spending the night in jail and that they were not the right people to help me as the French hate the Spanish. Blahdy blah I thought. Then Nuria pointed out the security cameras which are focussed in from the guard towers. Oh !! What was I going to do if they had noticed me ? Delete the photo taken in the highly sensitive military zone... I put my camera away and did not want to look guilty. I was feeling a little guilty though. The African visitor who can take big chances because Africa is far more risky than Europe. Well, beware of Big Brother who is watching...

The "forbidden" photo

Luckily for me, the tour ended and nobody had even noticed my transgression. The tour guide escorted the group back outside to the front entrance and I sailed through the security checkpoint without notice. So much for security cameras in the military area. Sigh of relief...