Friday 14th July: Weather 16°C to 26°C. Misty and cool in Luchon, fine and warm in Foix
Luchon to Foix: Almost 6hrs: Bus Luchon to Montrejeau, Train to Toulouse, Bus to Foix, 9.30am to 3.15pm
Accommodation: L’Arche des Chapelliers
Pow wow at Gare de Luchon
Highlight today was the 5 minutes it took to run from Toulouse Matabiau station to the Gare Routiere (Bus Station) with four young Colombians we had met in Luchon, to catch the only bus to Foix for Le Tour de France stage finish. Why this shemozzle ? Mostly because today is July 14th. Not only is it Bastille day when everything is closed or stopped, but there’s a train strike all over France and all trains to Foix were cancelled. And thirdly Le Tour was finishing in Foix today with many roads and services closed. And after all this, we arrived in Foix in time to see the finish of the Tour de France which was so exciting.
We knew last night of the train strike and that trains were mostly cancelled, particularly in the south of France where we are. So our plan was to catch the 9.38 bus from Luchon to Montréjeau, then the 11.23 train from Montréjeau to Toulouse, IF it’s running, then hitch hike, catch a taxi? Make another plan in Toulouse to get to Foix.
Coffee at Gare de Montrejeau
More pow wow at the bus station Gare Routiere Toulouse Matabiau
Success! at Gare de Foix
Lunch in the park Foix
Last of Tom’s chocolate spread
Waiting, waiting
Too fast
Froome stalked by Fabian Aru
70kph and gone in a flash
Camera doesn’t capture speed
Warren Barguill is Foix stage winner
Chateau de Foix
Mediaeval knights from chateau
With all this in mind, we were up early today to clean, pack, have our home-made breakfast of muesli yoghurt and fruit. It’s misty and a cool 16°C as we walk the 1k down to the Gare de Luchon. Other hikers and Tour de France followers are there waiting for the same bus, including 4 young Colombian students following Le Tour. After a bit of phone googling, everyone else becomes aware that the train service to Foix is cancelled. Soon the ticket office is open and the young attendant knows nothing until he turns on his computer and sees all the cancelled trains, exclaiming how stupid! Also his computer is down, probably because of the strike, and he can’t sell us a bus ticket. When our bus arrives, he explains to the bus driver that his computer is kaput and we all pile on for free.
It’s just over a one hour bus trip up the Ariege Valley through forests, and then the low lying hills north of the Pyrenees to Montréjeau. The ticket seller there doesn’t know much about the strike either and is baffled that he can't book us a train ticket all the way to Foix. When he realises what is going on, he prints out a sheet of the amended July 14th and 15th train times, that has a mix of a few trains, but mostly bus replacements. We then realise that our train will arrive in Toulouse at 12.30pm and the bus to Foix also leaves at exactly the same time, 12.30pm. Hurried negotiations with our 4 Columbian friends and we ask the attendant could he please contact the bus company to hold the train for 5 mins ( a big ask) but he does and tells us what to do. We’ll have to turn right when we exit Toulouse Matabiau station and run fast for about 200 metres to Le Gare Routiere.
There’s 40 minutes to spare until the train departs for Toulouse, so Ian and I find a place around the corner of the Gare de Montréjeau out of the impending rain, for a Jet boiled coffee. It’s still a cool 16°C with showers hanging around. At 11.23, all 6 of us get on the train in adjacent cabins so we can fly off the train as soon as it arrives to run for the bus. Ian has phone connection and I google the Toulouse Gare de Routiere and see a photo of it so we know what it looks like.
The train pulls in at exactly 12.30 to Toulouse Matabiau station and we’re off and running, taking a short cut exit, and we fly into the bus terminal to see the digital sign flashing Voie 8 Foix 12.40. We arrive just in time. One problem. We don’t have tickets. But luckily one of the 4 Columbians speaks French and sweet talks the driver into letting us on. He agrees on one condition - since we have not booked, IF he has to pick up extra passengers beyond the bus capacity, we have to get off. OK.
There’s 10 bus stops between Toulouse and Foix, and at every stop we’re counting the passengers on and off. Lucky it is Bastille day, so there’s no workers and no school children, and by the time we pull into Foix, there’s only 10 people still on the bus. We thank the driver and give him a tip, then look for the ticket office at Gare de Foix to check out a bus for tomorrow. We know there’s one at 8.52am and it would be nice to pre purchase a ticket but the gare is closed.
A few hundred metres down the road and we’re in Foix - we’ve been there before in 2007 so we have a vague idea of the layout of the town. It’s 3.15pm and we can hear the excitement as the caravan for Le Tour passes down the main street. No rush, we already have a suitcase full of Le Tour souvenirs. Zig zagging through the crowd to the Tourist Office to check on the trains and buses for tomorrow, we find they know less than us about the strike. So we decide we’ll just go down early enough in the morning to sort it out, smile at the driver and coerce our way on a bus.
We’re starving and there’s a park outside the Tourist Office within cooee of Le Tour. Lunch at 3.30pm. Cheese, tomato, bread and butter of course, with the last of Tom’s chocolate spread from a tube. Yum. Then it’s off to find our chambre d’hote, L’Arche de Chapelliers, where Sonia greets us and shows us to our room, with separate ensuite and lounge area- just wonderful - and our bag that we posted from Pau was sitting there waiting for us. A quick thank you and we give her a bundle of Aussie goodies - a Taylor’s Shiraz, mini koala, kangaroo keyring and bracelet that we had posted with our stuff to her, and we're off to find a pozzie for Le Tour which is expected to arrive at 5.15pm. It’s downhill 25k into Foix from the last high point of Le Mur de Peguere, and there's no chance of us walking to a “steep” slow spot. So we park ourselves 450 metres from the finish.
We only have an hour to wait and at 5.15 the Gendarmarie arrive on motorbikes with sirens blaring, soon followed by a group of 5 riders who whiz by at 70kph in less than 2 seconds. There’s no time to blink before they’re gone. A minute later Froome, stalked by Aru flashes through then other small groups zoom by. And in about 7 minutes it’s all over. After almost 6 hrs of travelling and running for buses and trains, it’s finished. But well worth the effort. Nothing quite compares with Le Tour de France.
After a stroll around the old town, and a stop at the boulangerie for a baguette for dinner, it’s time to go back and re organise our gear ready for tomorrow’s flight from Toulouse to Paris and home. But coincidentally, tomorrow, Le Tour starts at Blagnac, the airport for Toulouse, and when we realised this several months ago, we immediately made plans to see the beginning of this stage too - our 3rd stage in 3 days. IF we get on the 8.52 bus in the morning from Foix, we hope to catch a taxi from Toulouse Matabiau to the start of the race at Blagnac, about 6k away.
At 8pm, there’s still dancing and celebrations in the street below us as we sort gear, shower and wash. Ian trots off to the Carrefour Express for a beer, a bottle of wine and meat of any description, while I catch up on blogging. Dinner is a simple cheese, tomato, capsicum, sliced dry jambon, fresh baguette and butter, with a beer and a merlot.
It’s 10pm and the streets are still buzzing, though the dancing has stopped. It’s been a long day, and somehow I feel sleepier than if we’d walked 20k.
Yellow hats, polka dot shirts and me