Saturday 15th July: Weather 18°C to 28°C
Foix to Paris: Bus Foix to Toulous, 9am to 10.30am, Air France Toulouse to Paris, 7.25pm to 9pm.
Accommodation: mCitizen Paris Charles de Gaule Airport
Full bus Foix to Toulouse plus dog
Highlight was being at our 3rd stage of Le Tour de France in Blagnac after a hectic start to the day on a crowded bus from Foix to Toulouse, with even a dog on board. Then getting a taxi to Blagnac for the start of Le Tour to find the place buzzing with 30,000 visitors - mostly families who would have found it difficult to get to any of the high cols with kids.
An early start at L’Arche des Chapelliers and after a few phone calls, it’s breakfast at 7.30am. Sonia has provided a lovely spread of jams and breads, with muesli and yoghurt with hot tea. We leave at 8am to make sure we’re on the 8.52 bus to Toulouse. There’s already a dozen backpackers waiting at the station. Trying to buy a ticket at the ticket machine is useless - it continually rejects our visa card - as it had done in Paris previously. We’ll take a chance and offer the driver cash.
Jeppe, our Norwegian friend and Ian at Parc du Ramiers for TdeF
1pm start for Le Tour from Blagnac
30,00 people at the start Blagnac
Start Blagnac
Start Blagnac
Walking back from start
Lunch in the park Blagnac
Watching Le Tour big screen
Toulouse Airport - finished
The bus arrives and people load their gear in the underside baggage section. Ours won’t fit so we join the queue and hope to take it on the bus with us. The driver doesn’t accept cash and she (yes, lady driver) indicates we need to go and buy a ticket, but after some quick explaining in quasi French, she shoos us down the back of the bus and we grab a seat with backpacks parked on our laps. Someone gets on with a dog - the French are very accepting of dogs - they’re allowed in hotels, shops, buses and trains without question.
The bus has 4 stops on the way, and it only takes one and a half hours instead of the two coming in yesterday with 10 stops. But at each stop, the driver prevents people getting on as it’s already full. At one stop, three people get off and she allows three more on, assuming there’s 3 seats, but they can’t find any seat vacated by those leaving. There were people squished into the back seat and hiding in the well of the middle exit just to stay on the bus so there really were no spare seats. At 10.35am the bus arrives at Toulouse Matabiau, and I rush off to check for any buses, trains or taxis out to Blagnac, about 6k away where Le Tour is die to start at 1pm. We would normally walk, but there’s no time to waste or we’ll miss Le Tour, and we’ve now got an extra bag we picked up in Foix, and it’s too heavy to carry all that way. I find a taxi driver who’ll take us for 22 euro and run back to tell Ian, but by the time we get back to the taxi rank, he’s just leaving with another passenger.
On the way back we bump into Jeppe, a young Danish student whom we had met with the Colombian group and offer him our taxi ride out to Le Tour. He had arrived on the next bus out of Foix. The new taxi driver speaks a little bit of English and I explain again where we want to go. All three of us get in and we’re off. It’s only 15 minutes out to a point on the opposite side of the river to Blagnac where we want to cross over on a bridge. We know we’re in teh right place as there’s hundreds of cars and people already walking across the bridge to Parc de Ramiers. The taxi costs 22 euro, and in no time we’re out and following the stream of people heading up to the start about 1 k away.
The park is buzzing with Le Tour team buses, team cars with bikes on top and thousands of people trying to get a glimpse of the riders. Ian minds all our bags while Jeppe has a look around and I walk up to the village centre to buy a baguette and cream for a coffee (decadent, I know!). Blagnac ville is closed to traffic. The hotels are overflowing with people spilling on to the street and several shops have run out of water and bread. The local Spar supermarche has a small bottle of cream but no bread, so I join a queue at a boulangerie and manage to buy 2 baguettes.
Back to the park and Ian cooks teh coffee on the Jet boil and we all enjoy a coffee and cream with a hunk of fresh bread while sitting on the grass. There’s not much to see but it’s great being here to be part of the excitement and enjoy the atmosphere. At 12.45, we walk up to the start where people are already 10 deep. I mind the gear by the footpath, where I can see glimpses of riders lined up, and Ian and Jeppe worm their way in through a gap in the crowd which opens up when the police force everyone aside to allow official cars through to the start.
At 1pm, Le Tour starts. It’s not a speed start as they’ll crawl for about 8k through the village streets lined with people until the official start at 1.20pm. But Ian got a few nice photos. We part company with Jeppe, he’s off to find a hotel for a few nights, and we follow the crowd walking back to their cars. The local Carrefours is full of people. Ian goes in to buy a beer and wine for lunch and there’s 8 cashiers churning through least 60 people a minute. Le Tour is a bonanza for local businesses.
15 minutes up the road towards the airport, there’s a large park where they’ve clearly had Tour de France festivities with a big screen and chairs set up for the grand start. But most people had left soon after the start. We have a leisurely lunch of cold wine and beer with a fresh baguette and some of our cheese and tomato, then mosey over to the big screen where we sit and watch the progress of the cyclists for the next 2 hours.
At 5pm, it’s only a 15 minute stroll to the Toulouse-Blagnac Aeroport where we re-organise our bags and check in with just one large hold bag. The flight leaves at 7.25pm and it’s completely full. At 9pm we arrive at Charles de Gaule, pick up our one large bag from teh carousel, catch the shuttle train from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3, then walk 200 metres to our hotel CitizenM on Roissy Pole Ave. The hotel is very trendy and modern and our room is small but very well equipped. Eveything is electronically controlled through an apple ipad - lights, tv, fan blind.
We drink the last of teh red wine saved from last night with the last of our cheese and tomato, then watch a movie - Made in Dagenham - before turning the lights out at 1am in the morning.