DAY 39: Tuesday July 10th: Les Contamines to Culoz:
Walk: 0k, Bus Les Contamines to St Gervais Le Fayet, train to Bellegrade then chamge to Culoz
Accommodation: Chambre d’Hote Ghoslaine Revol, 119 Poncet Ave Culoz
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
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 extra bag while we were trekking – she’s such a lovely French lady - lucky I had a bright shiny Australian dollar to give to her as a souvenir. After leaving our backpacks in the lounge room, we walk down to the markets for an hour 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 (called the King of Cheeses), a few South American tomatoes and one big lettuce, not forgetting a 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 for them to do it.
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 leaves on time, but a group of Americans are not sure where they’re getting off. So twice the bus stops, they all get off, they all get on. It's 30 minutes to St Gervais Le Fayet Gare and we have only 15 minutes to buy train tickets. There's a queue of 1 person, but they take 13 minutes to serve 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 the picturesque Rhone. The second stop is Culoz. We walk to the town centre, buzzing with cyclists wanting to climb the Grand Colombier before the Tour de France begins tomorrow. We call into the Tourist Office, pick up a few maps, then walk to our 4 bed chambre d'hote of Ghislaine Revol. The 4 beds are strung along a wide corridor separated by a few wardrobes. The shower/toilet is screened off by freestanding transparent dividers – 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, to buy a few things for dinner tonight. They also have these indispensible ziplock bags, better than the Australian Woollies version which splits open too easily. We use these for everything - nuts, soap, tissues, gloves and etc etc. So I buy one 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 with dinner included, but we eat more greens with our own picnic. – Dinner is with a nice Cote du Rhone rosé. Time to catch up on a few things - washing, blogging, sorting our stuff for the trip home - before meeting. At 9.30pm, we wander down to the station. Donna and Milton are catching the TGV from Paris to Lyon then the local train to Culoz, arriving at at 10.04pm. 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 - 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.