Villepinte to Carcassonne

Sunday 8th November
Villepinte to Carcassonne
After lapin casserole at 7.30pm (we were the only guests and the staff had to get off) and very good it was too, our hosts then had a dinner party of their own – in the bar and a 3 and a 5 year old joined them but not at the table. So that’s why there was such an obscene rush to get us fed; they needed the staff and we had just paid for them. We went to bed at about 10 leaving the adults and children to it. Unfortunately our room was above the entrance which as we all know is where people go to smoke and as all French smoke our bedroom soon resembled Willie’s smokehouse only it was a lot noisier. Anyway after breakfast (same children but less adults) we left them and returned to the canal tow path which by now has changed from a 2 lane tarmac cycle track into nothing more than a narrow muddy path and to make matters worse the clay they’ve lined the canal with seems to be what they built the tow path with as well so it is very sticky, slippery and exhausting. Frankly today has been hell!! It took 4 hours to do 20 miles mostly pushing and slithering along. Alec had a couple of near misses with the canal. Once when he ran down a bank, caught his foot in a bramble and VERY nearly dived straight in. I watched with baited breath to see if I would have to go in after him to help him out!
However, we’ve made it to Carcassonne – hoorah and are staying in a delightful place immediately under the castle walls and they even have a pressure hose so the bicycles are now once again pristine! We’ve booked in for two nights so tomorrow we can have a really good look at the old fortress.