Olonzac to Beziers

Wednesday 11th November, Olonzac to Beziers Our host definitely had a worse headache than us, but managed to give us a bit of breakfast. All the other old men in the village were in the bar by 10 a.m having glasses of wine, sympathizing with the amount of clearing up he had to do. They informed us that Armistice Day is a Bank holiday in France so everywhere was closed. Another excuse for a day off work but it did mean no heavy lorries on the roads. We have rather given up on the canal and set off cross country through very attractive wine growing land. We are now in the Languedoc region which is a lovely mix of undulating hills covered with pines and oaks and vines. It is much warmer as we near the coast . We clocked up 40 miles and made it to Beziers as dusk was falling. We had to go that far as everywhere else was shut. It is quite spectacular coming in to the town with the Cathedral on top of the hill, but we didn’t hang around to look at much as it had very dodgy inhabitants. We had to push the bikes up very steep cobbled streets and thought we were going to get mugged. A group of Algerians or similar crowded around us in a slightly hostile way but backed off when they saw how tired and muddy we looked. Luckily we made it to a great hotel in the centre and heaved a sigh of relief.