DAY 39: Tuesday July 10th: Les Contamines to Culoz: 10.0k, 7hrs 15mins: 12°C to 24°C, slightly cloudy, early rain, blue skies
Tuesday Market's in Les Contamines
Grey skies - time to get train out
On the train to Culoz
Culoz - Carrefour's market
The imposing Grand Colombier
A million campervans in town
Close to road to Grand Colombier
On road's edge to Grand Colombier
1/4 way up, looking back on Culoz
Signs indicate gradient and k's been
I can almost feel the T de F coming
An exciting day. The next part of our journey is to go to Culoz, about 3 hrs away by bus and train, where we will meet up with Donna and Milton to watch the 10th Stage of the Tour de France, climbing the Grand Colombier behind the village of Culoz. The town is buzzing with pseudo cyclists, and every campervan in Europe is either in town or on the road up the mountain.
We awake in Les Contamines to grey skies and skype and phone home before breakfast at 8am. We're not in a hurry - the bus leaves at 11.05am. A leisurely breakfast of really fresh bread, really hot tea and meuslii and cheeses. We pack, then pay the Hotel bill and thank Mme Mammoud for looking after our extr bag while we were trekking - sh'es such a lovely French lady - lucky I hada bright shiny Australian dollar to give to her as a souvenir. After leaving our backpacks in the lounge room, we walk down to visit the markets for an hour or so before catching the bus. There's the usual produce of cheese, meats and veggies, with a few stands of chinese junk. We buy some dried ham and Alpage Beaufort cheese (supposed to be the King of Cheeses), a few South American tomatoes and 1 big lettuce, not forgeting the baguette.
We meet up with Jeremy, Rod, Kate and Lisa again in the market place, the 4 Aussies we met in Les Chapieux. They got into town at 7pm last night after doing the Col de Fours as an extra - we had done this previously in 2005 and today was the perfect day to do it, as well as going to the Tete for the magnificent views of Mont Blanc.
Time to go back to the Hotel and retrieve our bags and wander to the bus stop which, on a Tuesday, is at the bridge, not the Marie (Council Chambers) as it's market day and the streets are closed. The bus is on time, but there is a group of Americans who are not sure where they are getting off. So twice the bus stops, they all get off, they all get on. It's 30 minutes to St Gervais La Fayet Gare and we have 15 minutes to buy our train tickets. There's a queue of 1 person - but it still takes 13 minutes to serve this 1 person and we have to run to the platform. 2nd class is almost as good as first with a centre table - it's a 2hr trip before we need to change at Bellegarde so out comes the picnic of market foods. Bellegarde is on the Rhone, and we change here for the train to Lyon that travels down teh picturesque Rhone. The second stop is Culoz.
As we walk up to the town centre, the place is buzzing with cyclists who have come to try their skills on the Grand Colombier before the Tour de France tomorrow. We call into the Tourist Office, piuck up a few maps, them walk a few hundred metres to our 4 bed chambre d'hote of Ghislain Revol. The 4 beds are strung along a wide corridor separated by a few wardrobes and the shower/toilet is screened off by freestanding transparent dividers. There's no real door - we'll need to invent a vacant-occupied system with a red towel.
It's now 3.30pm and we head off to the Carrefour supermarket down the road (we found it on the inteney last night), to buy a few things for dinner tonight. They also have these indispensible ziplock bags - and there are the best anywhere - the Australian Woollies version splits open too easily. We use these for everything - nuts, soap, tissues, gloves and etc etc. So I buy i box to make sure they are the same as last time. They are - I'll get more boxes tomorrow.
Back at our room, we have our first picnic dinner for weeks - most nights are demi pension where dinner is included - at least we get the chance to eat more greens this way - all washed down with a bottle of Cote du Rhone rosé which is really nice.
Time to catch up on a few things - washing, blogging, sorting out our stuff for the trip home - before meeting Donna and Milton at the station at 10.04 - they're catching the TGV from Paris to Lyon then the local train to Culoz. At 9.30, we wander down to teh station and sure enough, the train is exactly on time
Back at our room, we share a bottle of not so nice Cote du Provence rosé, and discuss tomorrow's tactics. Donna's foot is improved, not better, but some antibiotics, voltaren, and a rosé should do the trick for tomorrow. We also decide that using a red towel to indicate whether the toilet/shower is occupied or vacant is a waste of time. The freestanding screens are transparent. We'll need to take turns at sitting downstairs at the dining table until we hear the toilet flush or the shower stop running.
Time for bed - a great day is looming.