A Toulouse-Lautrec poster
A Toulouse-Lautrec poster
Day
24 (32 km): It was fresh but sunny as we continued south from Cordes.
After one steep climb we had a series of gently rolling hills,
finishing with a very fast downhill to Albi. We found a hotel and
began touring this interesting city. Albi has two main attractions.
The first is the immense, imposing fortress church, the Cathédrale
Ste. Cécile. The exterior of this church is plain,
impregnable. It had to be because it housed the Inquisitors who
tracked down the few survivors of the Cathar "heresy" - they needed
protection. Inside the church, however, it was a different story.
Ornate to the extreme - breathtaking. Frescoes on all the walls and
ceiling; intricate stone carving; fine wood carving; statues
everywhere. The other Albi attraction is the Musée
Toulouse-Lautrec. There is a good collection of the famous works of
the diminutive Albi native. Dinner was at the Hotel Laperouse on the
terrasse by the pool, lit by small lanterns and sheltered by a
grape arbor - a magical setting and a nice meal.
Day
25 (60 km): It was sunny and warm when the women sprinted through the
marché aux puces (flea market) in the square. They
didn't buy anything. We continued south, encore valloné
(still hilly). We stopped for lunch in a lovely park by the Agout
river in Roquecourbe and then followed the river into Castres. We
booked into the Hotel de L'Europe with its elegant
staircase down into the lobby. (We returned to Castres in 2000.
The hotel is no longer in operation.) The old houses backing on to
the river make a nice picture. We did a little shopping and toured
the city. The vielle ville is nice.
Day
26 (65 km): We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed out to
the southwest, paralleling the imposing Montagne Noire which
separates the hilly Haut-Languedoc from the flat plain of the Canal
du Midi to the south. We saw names painted on the road, the telltale
sign that the Tour de France had passed this way several weeks
earlier. There were lots of fields of sunflowers in full bloom -
spectacular. 3 km outside of Revel my rear tire blew. The tread had
worn away in a couple of places and the tube, now exposed to the
pavement, exploded. Since it was Sunday and any stores would close at
12:30, the women raced ahead to Revel to get groceries and to see if
they could find a tire. No luck - everything was closed. Meanwhile
Peter and I set about trying to devise a solution to the problem. We
covered the holes inside the tire with black plastic tape. Then we
cut up one of my cotton socks and placed strips of sock on top of the
tape inside the tire. Then we put in a new tube, installed and
inflated the tire on my front wheel, putting the undamaged front tire
on the rear wheel where the load was. Then we
wrapped more black tape around the outside of the tire where the
holes were. Finally, because the taped up tire would no longer roll
past the brake pads, we released the front brakes. We set off again
with this jury-rigged wheel. My wheel fluttered as we rolled along.
Heather's bike had developed a "clunk" in the bottom bracket. Two
spokes broke in Peter's ailing rear wheel. It was quite a chorus -
"flutter, clunk, zip, zip, twang - flutter, clunk, zip, zip, twang" -
as we limped into Villefranche-de-Lauragais. We walked down to the
Canal du Midi to have a look. Very peaceful. Sundays are always quiet
in France.
Day
27 (47 km): The bike shop in Villefranche was closed on Mondays. We
decided since we'd be using the bike path along side the Canal
du Midi for the ride into Toulouse we'd chance it with our
sock-and-tape repair. We were headed for our hotel that we had booked
when we arrived at the start of our trip. We followed the signs once
in Toulouse directing us to the airport. Unfortunately, the signs put
us on the A61, one of the high speed multi-lane autoroutes feeding
into and out of Toulouse. We cycled along the debris strewn shoulder
of the highway with cars and huge trucks speeding past us at 120 km/h
until we could escape at the first exit. Once we had checked into the
hotel we took a bus back into Toulouse and toured around a bit. The
cathedral, St. Sernin, is very impressive as is the capitol building.
We did a little shopping and then returned to the hotel where we had
our final dinner.
Day 28 (3 km): We cycled to the airport and checked in. During the flight home we had an unexpected bonus. A group of Basque singers were headed for Québec for a concert tour. We were treated to periodic outbursts of song from this very lively group.
Despite the odd rain shower and sometimes cool temperatures it was a great trip - about 1400 km. Peter and Heather are a lot of fun to travel with. This had been our first trip with them alone. We've since taken three more with them so they must like our company too.