Our “wild camping” in the parking lot of the small town of Lunas passed well, in fact both of us probably slept better than some nights when we’d been hidden away in the woods. Amazing how no one took any notice of us – maybe tents crop up regularly in the parking lots of southern France! Overall we had an easier day than Saturday, with no huge hills to climb, and we were inspired by our first view of the Mediterranean after weeks of heading south through Europe. Surely this will mean an end to the cool nights we have been experiencing.

We were passed by lots of local racing cyclists out for a run on a sunny Sunday afternoon, but this also reminded us that we have not seen one fellow touring cyclist since Canada. A real shame when you think how crowded some of these roads would be in the summer – for us we have really been enjoying having routes almost to ourselves, even in fairly touristy areas. After passing through several small towns, where the locals were flocking to Christmas markets, we arrived in Narbonne and found a new friend Stephane who is putting us up for a couple days. We met him through the Hospitality Club, an internet site where people who are willing to host travellers leave their details. Stephane is a great tour guide and showed us all around Narbonne, telling us about its Roman history as well as taking us for a drive out to some beautiful nature reserves and seaside villages. He also treated us to a very tasty cassoulet for supper – not from a tin like we have been eating the last few weeks! – and a local wine.