No GR10 but made up for in other ways

Day 27 Monday 24th May
Granges d'Astau - Luchon via Lac d'Oo 12 miles
Overnight accommodation was good and I slept soundly til the fire
alarm woke me (but not before 7.30). Going via the GR10 was definitely
not an option as the snow conditions made it too dangerous. Plan B was
perfectly acceptable though - walk up to Lac d'Oo for coffee then come
back down and continuenon lower paths through or bypassing small
villages to reach Luchon by a lower path. It worked well. Lac d'Oo was
well worth the effort and I considered taking my rest say there, bur
there was too little to do and too little company. I spent a good hour
there though before setting off on the descent. Lunch stop for a
picnic was in the village of Oô. Very pretty with lovely stone picnic
tables by the river - all in full sun of course. As it was already
nearly 30C the bus shelter came into it's own again and
I played the vagabond, making making myself comfortable with bootsnofd
and feet up. Locals were very apologetic for disturbing me when they
came with their rubbish to the nearby collection point. Then a
pleasant but long hot walk through the trees to Luchon. Why is it thar
the last hour or so seems so long. And what's the point of a zig zag
path that goes almost horizontally until the last moment then suddenly
dramatically down. Just triples the distance you need to walk.
Luchon made a good impression and I found a simple but friendly and
comfortable hotel on the church square, a bit off the main drag. It
didn't take long to settle into the "time off" mode. The evening meal
was good and the company very congenial as i got into conversation
with 2 charming french couples from the Champagne region. They are
doing an express crossing of the Pyrenees in the opposite direction to
me - and taking just a week instead of 2 months.