Interesting final full day of this trip, to say the least! Today we were supposed to be taking the train from Lourdes to Paris, giving us a change to take a nap or review photos and at the very least update the diary entries here a lot better! But when the train was cancelled we were left scrambling for alternative means to get to Paris, settling on a 145 Euro cab ride to the Pau airport and three $300 each one-way tickets to Paris. That cost will be partially offset by the expected refund of $125 each for the cancelled train; sure wish I could get something more from the train cancellation because it would have been a lot less expensive had we made plans to fly earlier!

No problem arriving in Paris and taking a cab to our hotel except our driver decides that 4 or 5 blocks is close enough when he encounters a bit of construction work. Really? This was a new one for me. Still, we got to the hotel before 2pm, at least an hour earlier than we would have had we actually arrived by train. And, good news, our room had been upgraded! Bad news, it had just one large bed. Umm… no, Kevin needs as much distance as he can get from me, to mute the sound of my snoring. Not a big deal, Lee, our friend traveling with us, had no similar issues with his room so we stored out luggage there and headed off to see the race!

If you haven’t done a Trek Travel gig, let me tell you, they do it in style. For $525 for the day you have the Paris Auto Club at your disposal with food to die for, anything you might want, probably the sort of thing that someone might spend $100+ for at a restaurant. But what you really get is behind-the-lines access to the final stage of the Tour de France! No standing for hours 5 deep behind barriers, wishing you had a ladder. You are literally on the tarmac!

Normally there’d be cool photos from the Time Trial, and stories about getting caught and somewhat lost in a heavy rainstorm, and the you woman on the train who asked if Kevin could move his camera bag so she could sit next to him, and the cancelled train in the morning that meant we had to ride 25 miles at 7:15am to catch one at another station just so we could see the time trial.

Normally.

But clearly today didn’t start out normal, and it didn’t end that way either. Right about the time the train gets us back to Lourdes, comes an email from SNCF, the French railroad company. I didn’t notice it for another 20 minutes, as we got to the room and started packing. That was 10:15 I think. The email said our train from Lourdes to Paris was cancelled. Seriously. As well as every other train that could get us from Lourdes to Paris. That set in motion a frantic search for some other way to get out butts up to Paris, not just so we could see the finish tomorrow, but just to get to our flight home!

Eventually we found a flight from Pau (about 25 minutes away) for a pretty exorbitant cost (about $270 each) which will get us to Paris in time for the finish, and for our flight home. There are still details to work out, like how we’re going to get the three of us, with six pieces of luggage, to the airport. Figure that out at 8am tomorrow morning, when the reception here opens and somebody might have an idea.

So, a really wild day that seemed to have ended on a really high note, until that email arrived. The French rail system has not done very well by us this year, for sure! –Mike–