June 25: Agde to Carcassone

Our plan on Tuesday night was to ride the Canal du Midi bike “path” as far as possible to see what happens.  The path is a dirt track that is right next to the canal in many places.  The path is pretty rough; we’d scouted portions of it the day before.  But last night it was thundering and raining all night, so we were concerned that the path had turned into mud.  We got started early and got about 100 meters onto the track and nearly fell twice in the mud, which was about 10 cm deep in places, well over our rims.  Lorie was certain that we were going into the canal and I was not so sure she wasn’t right.  We stopped and turned back to recalibrate.

We regrouped and looked at which roads to take.  We wanted to avoid the most heavily travelled D roads, so decided to jog around a bit.  We did some good navigating and found some quiet roads

The rain continued pretty steadily, but we found the one short section of the Canal du Midi path that was paved as a bike path – maybe 10 km long.  We rode that in the rain until it skirted the large and bustling city of Beziers.  We finally saw some flamingos – not pink, white, but you can see pink ones in Florida!

The Canal du Midi is a waterway built over hundreds of years that connects Toulouse to the Mediterranean.  It is used today both commercially and by lots of people who holiday on boats.  There are many, many locks, and going by boat looks like a fun way to see the countryside.

 

We took one wrong turn, which turned out to be really cool: we rode on an aqueduct that flowed over a river -- called the Orb aqueduct I think.  The aqueduct was set up for boats to pass, so it is an unusual site to see a boat on a bridge passing over a river! We just missed a photo of a boat navigating the aqueduct.  What a sight.  Sorry we couldn't put a photo here, but here's a few shots anyway.

At this point, after a bit of navigational challenges, we got on the D11, which goes all the way to Carcassonne – about 75 km, but which is a bit more heavily used.  Here, the wind picked up and smacked us in the face, though the rain subsided after about ½ hour.  The wind was straight into our face and was soul sucking.  We pushed as hard as reasonably possible and were able to hold about 17 to 20 kph.  Ouch!  Traffic was not too bad, with the occasional lorry but they are once again very courteous and slow to our speed if it is not safe to pass us.

75 km into that wind was pure misery.  We stopped for coffee rests a couple of times, once in the tiny village of Capstang that had its market just opening up.  If we were'nt on a bike, they had lots of fresh veggies and fruit and fish that looked enticing.  

Lorie was having a tough time in the wind but was doing great.  But in the last 10 km she bonked. Her first bonk!  But she made it to the end and we both smiled as we saw the famous walled city.

We splurged a bit and found a super nice B & B back up the hill where we came from.  It has a swimming pool, too, which helped cool us down.  The hostess is a charming woman who made sure Lorie was feeling well and who immediately made reservations in her name at a restaurant that she recommended.  Since we were splurging and feeling rested...

Local wines are excellent and very, very inexpensive

Gszpacho, Carcassone style, and salad

Fois gras and a mousse

Duck with prunes, avocado pureee and some kind of sauce

Monk fish with tomato and aioli

Selection of local cheeses

Chocolate

Neither of us can think of a better meal.  Ever.  And it was not expensive at all.

Carcassone's main gate at night

We’ve ridden now 15 days straight, averaging over 100 km per day.  Time for a rest!  We're taking tomorrow off to explore the cite.

Be well.