Day 11: Foix

Our destination for today was Foix, a town about 50 miles south of Toulouse in the direction of the Pyrenees. We had been there in 2010 but felt like we hadn't been able to enjoy it properly, as it was the day after our ill-fated walk from Narbonne to Narbonne Plage and our legs had been rather tired. I was excited to be revisiting it today, but when I opened the curtains this morning I started doubting whether we should go, because we were confronted with a rather unusual sight for this part of the world: a cloudy sky! The weather forecast suggested that it might start raining in Foix in the afternoon, but with the train we were planning to catch we knew we could be there by 11am, so we decided to risk it anyway and see how much of the town we could see before any bad weather set in.

We had a pleasant journey on a regional train, with the landscape becoming increasingly hilly the closer we got to Foix. When we got off the train and started to walk towards the main town, it was a bit cloudy but still dry at least.

We got our first glimpse of the castle which towers above the town.

Foix is the confluence of two rivers, the Arget and Ariège, which ultimately flow into the Garonne, the large river which flows through Toulouse.

The bridge across the main river was decked out with colourful Catalan flags.

We knew the walk up to the castle would be steep, so we had a stroll around the town to stretch our legs a bit first of all.

Every now and again we got glimpses of the castle.

And sometimes great views of it like this one.

Eventually we decided to start our ascent up to the castle rock. The steep path is made even more tiring by the cobblestones, which mean you really have to watch where you put your feet.

As we climbed upwards we started to have a good view of the countryside around Foix.

And of course, a good view of the castle up close.

It was a bit hazy, but you could still make out some of the mountains in the distance.

It cost €5.50 each to get into the castle, but for that you can climb up two of the towers...

...and walk around the grounds on the top of the castle hill.

The first tower we climbed was the one with the crenellated roof.

There were a lot of steps and we had to pause at times to wait for a party of French schoolchildren to pass us, but the view was worth it when we got to the top.

We could also see the second tower we were going to climb; this circular one.

There were a lot of steps to negotiate on this one as well, but eventually we made it to the top

The views were equally impressive from here.

There was a great view of the rest of the castle as well.

It seemed like the weather was improving slightly as well, which was a bonus.

It was 1pm by this point so we decided we'd better start the climb back down to Foix to get some lunch.

When we got to the foot of the castle hill, we found this large church, which we learned was the abbey of Saint-Volusien.

We found a nice place to sit outside and it remained dry while we ate, though it did cloud over a bit during the course of the meal. As we went for another walk around the town after lunch, we could get some perspective on just how high we'd climbed to get to the castle.

Soon it was time to walk back towards the station for our train back to Toulouse.

There was just time for one more shot of the castle before we left

We had a lovely day in Foix and were glad we weren't put off by the threat of rain which never materialised! Tomorrow we will hopefully be going on a trip to Albi, another beautiful town which we also visited in 2010.