We've finally made it to the promised sunshine and longer days of the
Mediterranean. The good news is that the days are definitely more sunny
and longer - the sun is over horizon well before 8am and doesn't set
until almost 5:30pm. The bad news is that the winds are keeping the
temperatures down. But, hey, two out of three works for me.
Seems like along time ago that we rode out of Toulouse along the Canal du
Midi but the beauty of the ride is still quite sharp in my mind. The
first 50km was paved, beautiful and easy riding. Huge grey Sycamore trees
lined the banks their branches entwining over the canal creating a tunnel
of fall color for us to ride through. The day was foggy and cool. On the
way out of Toulouse we passed just about every type barge imaginable.
Plain old shipping barges, two floor restaurant barges, discotech barges,
spa barges, old shipping barges converted into expensive looking house
barges. At the Col de Naurouze, the high point of the Canal u Midi, just
after the paved portion of the canal ended we left the canal and rode
regular roads without much traffic into Castlenaudry for the night.
Castelnaudry is the home of the famous dish, Cassoulet, which we didn't
try until the next night. The hot beans and meat were great after being
in a cold wind most of the day.
On our way out of Castlenaudry we rode down to the canal to see the Grand
Basin and get a picture back toward town. The low grey clouds did nothing
to help the image but the view was still nice. From Castlenaudry to
Carcassonne the canal was no less beautiful but the surface was much worse.
We rode paved bicycle track, hard packed gravel, dirt road, dirt single
track and everything in between. Lots of roots, rocks and ruts to
navigate around fortunately the beauty of the canal easily made up for
the tough riding (I wouldn't recommend trying this for your first bicycle
tour. Know that you are going to be riding mostly unpaved and be ready
for some rough riding and you'll be fine. We rode it on 1.25 inch tires
and didn't suffer from any flats). On the outskirts of Caracssonne we
stopped to get our bearings and picked up a motorscooter escort to the
doorstep of the Tourist Information. We spent the next day touring the
Medieval city which Erich has previously described.
From there we took a slight detour away from the canal and up into the
Alaric mountains and Lagrasse, "one of France's most beautiful villages"
according to signs at the entrance to the city. The ride to Lagrasse was
hilly and the terrain and vegetation was very reminisent of Southern
California. It certainly was a nice small village with an old Abbey that
was in the process of being restored.
The next morning in Lagrasse the winds had increased in velocity and we
were a bit nervous about riding in them. Faced with few better
alternatives we decided to head out into the winds and see how the riding
was. Most of the day was spent running down wind, the traffic was
extremely light and we managed to soldier through the few strong side
gusts. We even had the energy for a side trip to the Fontfroide Abbey
that made us feel as if we were in Southern California. Shortly after
leaving the abbey our road merged into a very busy one. We managed to
find a dirt road that we followed only to find ourselves on an even
busier highway. Fortunately we only had to ride it for 100m before we
turned of it and headed into town on a bike path.
From Narbonne to Gruissan and the Mediterranean we again had a down wind
run. At one point Erich and I were being pushed by the winds at 34kmh. We
had reached the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately it turned out be a
windsurfing hotspot.
Stacey composed the following (bad) limerick while fighting a headwind
back to Narbonne:
In a wind called the Tramontane
They blew to Gruissan down a lane
Where they stayed by the sea
In apartment for three
Until they left for Spain.
For those of you that are interested the daily distances are:
Toulouse to Castlenaudry 65km
Castlenaudry to Caracassonne 46km
Caracassonne to Lagrasse 42km
Lagrasse to Narbonne 49km
Narbonne to Gruissan 19km
