Day 48 – Onto Ax-les-Thermes

Tour de France

Now my friendly German neighbours point out that the Tour du France is visiting the surrounding villages in the next few days and bring their book over with the published routes. On Sunday they are arriving in the Village of Ax-les-Thermes about 20 Kms south of here. Then they go west over the next few days. This is a big problem for me. I thought the tour was going west to east but it turns out they are going the same way as me. Also because I have an appointment on Monday to see the immoblier I can’t get ahead of them. When the tour is in town the roads are closed the whole day and the day before is often clogged with traffic as people stake out their places.



I’m not a massive fan of this kinda thing but if there’s lots of partying going on then that’s different. Since I have some time to kill I decided to watch the tour go through. I’ll make my way to Ax-les-Themes today while it is still possible and find a campsite with a good escape route so I can get back to Foix by 10am on Monday. Then I’ll waste a couple more days and let the tour get ahead of me before heading west a bit.

There are many caves in the area, here is a model of one of them

There is always something going on in rural France. If it’s not the Bastille Day fireworks or the tour du France, it’s some kind of music festival or something. One of my current favourite bands, ’Gossip’ was playing at a festival on the coast the day after I left. The French love to be entertained
!
Ax-les-Thermes is a vibrant if tiny ski town. I have to say not one I’m familiar with from British brochures. It has telecabins that rise up from the centre to the surrounding peaks many of which are over 2000 metres. The town itself is at 720 metres. It’s very much cooler today and it’s not just the rise in altitude. There is no sun at all and for the first time in ages I had to put my jumper on! This is good news as one shower a day will suffice.

Both of these are fine vehicles, although one is built purely for posing. You can tell by the lack of dirt of any description

The inside of the other vehicle; let’s face it, you wouldn’t bring your new girlfriend home if you lived here!