Foix pt2

After an excellent lunch of a warm aubergine and carrot salad type thing I cycled up to the castle. Not much of a bike-infront-of-thing opportunity because the approach to the castle from the ticket office was vertiginous. It was blistering by now and I cycled through the very pretty town towards the hotel.

I made it to the hotel at 1400 – which from their web site looked like the earliest check-in time. Er, no. 1500 on the door. I went round to the pool and there was an equally disappointed couple waiting there and it was super hot AND I couldn’t *quite* get on the WiFi so I went back round to the front, hooked up to the WiFi and sat watching the TdF whilst doing the crossword. Once checked in I washed my clothes and watched the TdF and planned tomorrow whilst the heat eased off a bit then went down to the POOL and had a lovely time there relaxing, watching the end of the stage (weirdly the wifi worked at the pool which was further from the hotel than when I gave up earlier!) catching up with the news, and the crossword of course!

I had been feeling a bit sad that there was a 30 minute walk in to Foix for dinner. Then remembered I had a bike. I rode in to the centre looking for a supermarket to get some breakfast stuff but cycled past the first. There was a table top sale and loads of people around, some unsavoury and I did not want to leave my bike outside. I went out of town and found another supermarket in what looked a slightly dodgy part of town. Dodgy enough that they had security guards by the tills so I felt pretty happy leaving the bike inside the shop right next to them!

I then randomly chose a restaurant on a square further up in town and had the most incredibly tomato and burrata salad (finally!) and a top Belgian beer – an Orval. All this with a fabulous view of the cathedral. Again, living my best solo life.