Loop ride to Grotte du Mas d'Azil

July 10, 2016

I wanted to start early to beat the heat so asked for breakfast at 7:30, the earliest time listed. Even though it's Sunday, the day everyone seems to sleep in, my hosts agreed.

I took the D1 all the way from Foix to Le Mas d'Azul, the village adjacent to the cave. I took a short break here and bought some coffee-flavoured yogurt in the small shop—it was a two-pack, so not too much to eat at once. I regretted not bringing my spork today, but managed with the coffee-stirrer the shop proprietor was able to provide.

I guess this would catch any individual rocks that fell from the exposed face...

A look at the Voie Verte where it crossed the D 1. I didn't take it outbound, or this section on my return to Foix.

The route passes through a valley devoted to agriculture

The French cycle touring federation seemed to have an event on today. As far a I could tell, there were 3 routes that participants could follow, ending with a lunch in Le Mas d'Azul.

I peeked in the door of the Mairie, wondering what was going on. Tables were being set up for a lunch, presumably for the cyclotourism event participants.

The road through the cave was very cool. Thanks again, Scott. I turned on my rear light and rode on the sidewalk. It would have been fine on the roadway too, but there were no pedestrians and I wanted to stop and take pictures. There's a fairly new museum/interpretive centre and I dithered a bit about paying the 8€ entrance fee (yesterday's visit to the Château de Foix entitled me to a 1€ discount) but one can only go in with a tour and the one daily tour in English wasn't for another almost 2 hours. I know from experience that my French isn't good enough to get a lot from a tour in French, even if they give me written material to carry along.

Inside, it's not quite as dark as this photo looks. I had my camera flash turned off.

At the other end of the cave was another cycling event. This seemed to be a mountain bike cross-country ride with lots of participants milling around.

I continued on the D 119 until turning off onto D 15, selected because my Michelin map indicates it as scenic. Two of the cycle touring routes went this way as well and it was scenic.

A concrete truss bridge (engineer coming through, sorry)

The D 15 tees into the D 117, a much busier road. I took the opportunity to move onto the Voie Vert as far as La Bastide de Serou, where I picked up the quiet and scenic D 15 again as far as its junction with D 21. This road was the quietest yet, and very narrow. I think I saw half a dozen cars in the 10 km I followed this road, and I spent some time on it because it climbed over a significant ridge. I could have opted for the Voie Vert almost all the way back to Foix, but I didn't. It would have been flat! Instead, after descending from the ridge, I made a turn onto D 17, a reasonably quiet road all the way into centre ville. I showered and still had time to make it to a restaurant before they all close at 2.

I read somewhere that a steelworker of a century ago could install hundreds of rivets in a workday. Nowadays, one who can actually install rivets (for period-accurate reconstruction) has a much reduced productivity.

Back to Avenue des Marchands, next door to last night's. Green salad with cubes of blue cheese and half walnuts, followed by steak-frites and crème caramel for dessert.

35 degrees in the shade this afternoon!

Distance 69 km; ascent 658 m; descent 657 m

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Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 699 km (434 miles)

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