Archive for May, 2007
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
78km Courris to St Jean d’Alcapiès
We’ve had enough of rain! If we knew how to do a sun dance we’d be twirling our way through the streets of France because the last week has been full of wet and chilly days. This gets depressing after a while on a bike. Should we just do a u-turn and head back to Spain? Friedel admits to considering this more than once over the past few days. We’re out of clean socks and our shoes refuse to dry out, not to mention the tent which is also perpetually wet and starting to smell about as appealing as our stinky feet after a long day cycling. The one thing we will say is that we are very happy we invested in Goretex rain gear (thank you Keiron for the advice before we left: “Goretex, Goretex, Goretex!”) and Sealskinz waterproof socks. They might be expensive but they pay for themselves many times over in a run of wet weather. Without them we’d likely be stalled several hundred kilometers back. (more…)
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Journal Entries by friedel
Monday, May 7th, 2007
56km Gaillac to Courris
“Cool, a tunnel!” That was Andrew’s reaction as we approached the entrance, nearly a kilometer of darkness ahead of us. Friedel was less enthusiastic. She’s not claustrophobic, but tunnels with their narrow passageways and sometimes aggressive drivers aren’t her favourite place to be on a bike. We sped through, swerving around several dark corners before finally reaching the end. Outside once again, the rain was still coming down. It had been raining off and on all day; too bad since this route along the Tarn river looked like it would normally be quite scenic. We remember the dramatic Tarn gorges further upstream from our bike ride through France in the autumn and already at this point the river starts to show some of the same characteristics with its high banks and scenic towns perched on the edge of the water. Our shoes were getting wetter by the minute though so we weren’t in much of a mood to stop and admire the view or take pictures. (more…)
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Journal Entries by friedel
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
72km Montech to Gaillac
Election day in France. As we rolled out of Montech we saw more people than usual in the streets for a Sunday morning, obviously out early to cast their vote. We were more focused on the ride ahead, which couldn’t get properly underway until we’d stopped at bakery for two chocolate pastries. Weekend luxuries! The cloudy skies quickly gave way to sunshine and by lunchtime we were rolling over gentle hills and beside the Tarn river, through a string of rural villages. The wind appeared at our backs and helped us along, into the town of Gaillac by early afternoon. Gaillac greeted us with a less-than-beautiful sight: “Hotel Paris” and its neighbour, simply signed “Hotel” and “Open 24 Hours”, looked like the kind of places we would cycle another 100km to avoid. In fact, the whole street was somewhere we didn’t want to be after dark, but a little further on the town centre appeared surprisingly pleasant. We headed for the tourist office and got pulled in by the adjacent wine tasting shop. It was a pleasant way to spend part of our Sunday, sipping red and sweet white wines from the region. Carrying several bottles of wine on a bike is less than practical but we managed to find space for a few, one for this evening and a couple to share with friends down the road. After our shopping spree we ambled our way towards the only campground in the region and set up our tent, played cards and generally relaxed in the sunshine. We were briefly excited when the owner came to tell us they had a wireless internet connection that we could use but the signal wasn’t strong enough for us to connect to. France has been horrible for internet access. Only the biggest cities have cybercafés and public access points have very restricted hours. We always seem to arrive just as the doors are closing for a three hour lunch break. With most shops closed on Monday and a holiday on Tuesday we are now unlikely to find anything before Wednesday. A far cry from Portugal!
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Journal Entries by friedel
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
63km Puymirol to Montech
Our day started with some early morning excitement as a hare zigged and zagged its way across our path. Considering we were hurdling our way down a hill and towards him at 40km/hour we were surprised to see him first sit in the middle of the road, then rush to one side and back to the other right in front of us. The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful, broken up only by our sniffling as we fight allergies brought on from the polen hovering thick in the air. When we weren’t pedalling along the quiet, leafy canal towpath we were in grocery stores, trying to fill our unending appetites and stocking up for closed supermarkets on Sunday. It’s asparagus season and we’ve been stocking up on both the green spears and the much treasured white variety, although after extensive testing we’ve decided that green asparagus is much tastier. We will have to do another big shop on Monday, ahead of a holiday on Tuesday. There are four public holidays in France in May to keep track of; one down and three to go! (more…)
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Journal Entries by friedel
Friday, May 4th, 2007
87km Grignols to Puymirol
Cycling round the world is bloody hard work! That’s the conclusion we came to today, in any case. It’s not so much the terrain that gets to you (although that can be a challenge too) but the constant decision making and uncertainty that represents life on the road. We’re not complaining – we love our travels and the views and experiences we have from our saddles – but the daily routine of life on a bike is something we think is often missed. It’s too easy to imagine only the romance of travel. Our tedious daily chores include going to the supermarket, trying and usually failing to find an alternative to pasta for supper, and working out where you’re going to spend the night. Just today we spent at least an hour in the grocery store and there’s rarely a day we don’t stop to stock up on food. By the time we’d actually found the store and finished our shopping it was nearly noon, so that was half the day gone before we’d even started. We found a lovely canal towpath in the afternoon and made good time into Agen, with the intention of staying at a campsite marked on our map in the town. We wanted to get off the bikes early and into the campground so we could do our laundry, another of those recurring chores. Long gone are the days when we had enough clothes to put off washing for a few days. We dream of our lives when we could throw a wash in the machine and come back from work to find it dry! Today though the laundry had to wait since the tourist office informed us that the campsite marked on our map didn’t exist and the nearest one was some distance away. We debated what to do next and decided we were too tired to make the hike to the campground, so instead we found a picnic table and took “showers” under a nearby watertap as we prepared supper. Early evening closed in on us quickly and we still weren’t sure where we were going to sleep. There was nothing for it but to keep cycling, setting a course for the campsite as a last ditch option. After a half hour we finally found a field for our tent, home at last!
