Sunday 16th May
Faugeres – Olargues. I had been rather dreading this day as we were going over the top of the mountain before joining the Voie Verte du Haut Languedoc. However, after a couple of miles uphill, the following 6 miles were a fabulous ride down to join the river Orb at Herepian and then head west towards Olargues. On our way down we passed at least 50 Tour de France type bikers sweating their way upwards and were heartily relieved that we were freewheeling in the opposite direction.
and.... they came up the hill faster than we went down it!
Being a Sunday there were no heavy lorries, just lots of camper vans and people going out to lunch in the many restaurants. We stopped for a short while in Lamalou les Bains which is a rather refined town.
The bridge and it's statues at Lamalou les Bains
We never discovered the baths so don’t know if they are Roman ruins or are still used today. The average age of the visitors makes us think they may have been there to take the waters.
The valley is beautiful, lush and green and the Orb is a proper mountain river, with really clear water but we didn’t see many fish.
We had a picnic in the village square of Le Poujol which was the only sheltered place from the ever present freezing north wind. There was a stall selling asparagus beside us and we longed to buy some as the asparagus season is in full swing, but you never see it on the restaurant menus.
Near to where we stopped for lunch.
We thought that we would join the bike route at Mons but the road surface was so good we stayed on the main road until we reached Olargues. This is reputed to be one of the prettiest villages in France and it is perched on top of a hill and most of the houses date from medieval times. We struggled up tiny streets and alleys to find our B and B. The bikes were stored in a type of dungeon under the city walls and our room looked over a very narrow alley.
I was going to say that the narrow streets are 'car free' but one has crept into this one!
As we had a couple more hours of daylight we set off on foot with a map of the town. It is a maze of tiny streets and houses, and we climbed up to the 12c tower, which has an amazing view of the river and valley.
The river and it's very definitely flowing the wrong way!
It was at this point we had a bit of a low moment, as the river appeared to be flowing FROM the direction we intend to take tomorrow for some extraordinary reason and/or miscalculation we had thought it was going to be all downhill from here! We had to scuttle home and dig the maps out; sure enough, the Orb had turned south without us noticing and we were now on the Jaur which flows the other way. This was not on our agenda as we had thought we had done all the necessary climbing for a few days.
The B and B run by an English lady called Pauline and her French husband (the latter not in much evidence but a very amusing man when he was) included a 4 course dinner which we took with another English couple. We sampled the difference between the Faugeres and St Chinian Rose’s and finished it off with a Faugeres red with our cheese! Out of the two Rose’s, the Faugeres one got the vote. The evening was very jolly as they were here to ‘complete’ on buying a house in the village which made it very interesting for us as they were a mine of information and better still, Charlie the husband was a keen cyclist so he even knew where we had to go tomorrow.
On our travels we have come across a number of ‘new inventions’ but the one we encountered in the shower of the ‘4 Jesters’ has to be the best yet. It is an automatic shower cleaner. Operated by pressing a button on what looks like a soap dispenser, leaving the shower and 30 seconds later it rotates spraying the inside of the shower cabinet with a mixture of disinfectant and liquid soap.
Needless to say I didn’t read the instructions (too small and no glasses) so pressed the button several times cursing it for not giving me any soap and then suddenly found myself being hosed down with this vile mixture the smell from which took a day to wear off.
Surrounding countryside, mercifully we are on a disused railway line so the steeper parts have been ironed out!
Faugeres – Olargues. I had been rather dreading this day as we were going over the top of the mountain before joining the Voie Verte du Haut Languedoc. However, after a couple of miles uphill, the following 6 miles were a fabulous ride down to join the river Orb at Herepian and then head west towards Olargues. On our way down we passed at least 50 Tour de France type bikers sweating their way upwards and were heartily relieved that we were freewheeling in the opposite direction.
and.... they came up the hill faster than we went down it!
Being a Sunday there were no heavy lorries, just lots of camper vans and people going out to lunch in the many restaurants. We stopped for a short while in Lamalou les Bains which is a rather refined town.
The bridge and it's statues at Lamalou les Bains
We never discovered the baths so don’t know if they are Roman ruins or are still used today. The average age of the visitors makes us think they may have been there to take the waters.
The valley is beautiful, lush and green and the Orb is a proper mountain river, with really clear water but we didn’t see many fish.
We had a picnic in the village square of Le Poujol which was the only sheltered place from the ever present freezing north wind. There was a stall selling asparagus beside us and we longed to buy some as the asparagus season is in full swing, but you never see it on the restaurant menus.
Near to where we stopped for lunch.
We thought that we would join the bike route at Mons but the road surface was so good we stayed on the main road until we reached Olargues. This is reputed to be one of the prettiest villages in France and it is perched on top of a hill and most of the houses date from medieval times. We struggled up tiny streets and alleys to find our B and B. The bikes were stored in a type of dungeon under the city walls and our room looked over a very narrow alley.
I was going to say that the narrow streets are 'car free' but one has crept into this one!
As we had a couple more hours of daylight we set off on foot with a map of the town. It is a maze of tiny streets and houses, and we climbed up to the 12c tower, which has an amazing view of the river and valley.
The river and it's very definitely flowing the wrong way!
It was at this point we had a bit of a low moment, as the river appeared to be flowing FROM the direction we intend to take tomorrow for some extraordinary reason and/or miscalculation we had thought it was going to be all downhill from here! We had to scuttle home and dig the maps out; sure enough, the Orb had turned south without us noticing and we were now on the Jaur which flows the other way. This was not on our agenda as we had thought we had done all the necessary climbing for a few days.
The B and B run by an English lady called Pauline and her French husband (the latter not in much evidence but a very amusing man when he was) included a 4 course dinner which we took with another English couple. We sampled the difference between the Faugeres and St Chinian Rose’s and finished it off with a Faugeres red with our cheese! Out of the two Rose’s, the Faugeres one got the vote. The evening was very jolly as they were here to ‘complete’ on buying a house in the village which made it very interesting for us as they were a mine of information and better still, Charlie the husband was a keen cyclist so he even knew where we had to go tomorrow.
On our travels we have come across a number of ‘new inventions’ but the one we encountered in the shower of the ‘4 Jesters’ has to be the best yet. It is an automatic shower cleaner. Operated by pressing a button on what looks like a soap dispenser, leaving the shower and 30 seconds later it rotates spraying the inside of the shower cabinet with a mixture of disinfectant and liquid soap.
Needless to say I didn’t read the instructions (too small and no glasses) so pressed the button several times cursing it for not giving me any soap and then suddenly found myself being hosed down with this vile mixture the smell from which took a day to wear off.
Surrounding countryside, mercifully we are on a disused railway line so the steeper parts have been ironed out!
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