A day in the Pyranees

Working in France again so we took a chance to spend the day in the Pyrenees  after a pleasent few days noses to the grindstone and running my rental 208 along the fantastic D625 between Mazerres and Mirepoix.

First we drove down to Foix and got onto the excellent D17 up the col du Marrous. Awesome run up the col and the 208 with tiny steering wheel was actually quite good fun, no grunt but decent turn in and nicely balanced. I kept it sensible has I had a colleague on board but still tipped it into a few before easing off when it got narrow as the snow encroached on the road.

After a steady twisty climb the route became inpassable and we had to turn round, stopping briefly to admire the depth of the snow, whip out the iPhones for some snaps and other things for a wee.

So back down the col and along to Terascon and a run up the next one, the  Col du Port (D618) Yay, the sign said it was open (albeit with a worrying snow chain sign) so we had another fantastic run which was clear to the top and, it has to be said, quite good fun in the 208. It would be superb in an Elise. Stopped at the auberge at the top for a beer and a smile and once again to admire the simply stunning view and exercise our camera phones. 

As we watched, a lone snowboarder set off up the mountain to take advantage of the powder - what a way to spend a friday afternoon eh! almost as good as getting in the north sea. 

We then headed down towards St. Girons, and discovered the other side was a bit more sketchy but passable. 

We got to the bottom no probs and followed the excellent road down the gorge which included a cool one way run  (D3) through some tunnels (oh for a sports exhaust).

Finally we pointed the nose of the Pug at Toulouse airport and got the hammer down on some more quality cross country roads (D627 being excellent out of St Girons) taking a wide route into the eastern side of the city.

This should be the end of this post but we hit terrible traffic on the Toulouse peripheric, got lost trying to avoid that traffic and very nearly missed our flight. The day was saved by some inspired google maps navigation on my part, the violation of a few traffic laws (starting with ignoring red lights), some insane 'french style' driving, rental car abandonment, 3mins to spare at check in and the tail end of the final call to board. The sting in the tail being that we were meant to be presenting our findings for the week to a guy from the venture capital company for the company we were working for. Queue lame jokes as we boarded about lead times, being Lean and just in time delivery.

Not yet finished I had another airport sprint to my 767 to Edinburgh connection which BA initially told me I had missed!

Now sat sitting sweating in 23k fully expecting my luggage to still be sat in Heathrow. The end to another mad week of 2013.