Route: taking the 8:55 train from Villefranche out as far as that train runs to Font Romeu (after a lengthy delay at Mont-Louis waiting for the return train to clear the single track). Then walking 500m to look at the solar power station before turning uphill to the outskirts of Odeillo to find a grassy track over alpine meadows to Bolquere and a tiny weak lager outside a café. Then on over an emptier landscape to reach and circuit the fort at Mont-Louis before entering the walls for lunch. Taking a tiny and uninspiring path in the corner of a field to descend steeply down into the valley and join a more major path to the Refuge La Cassanya. Descending to the valley bottom, shortly after, with views of the Train Jaune suspension bridge (Pont Gisclard) to cross a small river and join the Sentier Botanique back under the bridge and along the side of the valley before dropping down at St-Thomas-les-Bains to regain the train line at Fontpédrouse. Here, although a train was due at 6:25pm, we called for a lift back from Jo.
Conditions: initially cool but sunny all day.
Pub: a bar in Mont-Louis for lunch with rough Catalan red wine (and dry cider for the lady) and then canned Estrella Damm from the corner shop in Fontpédrouse.
