Wednesday 19th May
Castres to Albi
Fortunately I woke up first and was reading my book when this chap fell from the ceiling onto our pillow, phew that was lucky.
We thought we were leaving in quite good time until the lovely man on reception was asked to help us with our next hotel booking as we were going from one Logis to another. He was amazingly helpful and then took it upon himself to tell us how to get to the start of the next Velo Route and finally about 45 minutes later we were able to go. In the meantime quite a few rather miserable people were coming into the hotel and waiting for appointments. We thought they were looking for work but it transpired that there was a gold dealer in resid
ence and they were making the most of his expertise. We hope they got fair prices.
River Agout through Castres
Today’s route was exclusively on another Voie Verte which wound it’s way through the most stunning countryside.
Route de Pigeonniers
We were heading almost due north and for once there was little wind and lots of sun. In this area they are very organised and every few hundred yards you get a little sign telling you the names of the various trees, plants and birds that you might see en route. The cuckoos are out in force along with the usual many warblers that sing divinely but are impossible to see. The senses prevail here again as it is the centre for growing rose garlic and you can smell the fields some time before you come upon the acres of crops.
Rose garlic which has it's own AOC
We passed Lautrec which is a village perched on top of a hill, so I am afraid that we admired it from afar. It is the family home of Toulouse Lautrec although he wasn’t actually born in the village.
Lautrec Village
There were no other cyclists until the very end when a handsome boy asked if we spoke English. He was on his gap year and was working for some locals, and had borrowed their bike. Despite being a lovely route there was not a single place on the 30 miles to stop to buy anything to eat or drink, and he was as desperate as we were as it was very hot. Sadly we had finished our water by then. By about 4 pm when we realised that there really wasn’t anywhere to stop, we sat on the side of the path and raided our emergency supplies of 3 small cakes from the hotel breakfast and 2 oranges. The saddest moment was when we discovered that we had left a beautiful bar of chocolate in the hotel fridge!
We made up for it with an excellent supper near the Cathedral.
Castres to Albi
Fortunately I woke up first and was reading my book when this chap fell from the ceiling onto our pillow, phew that was lucky.
We thought we were leaving in quite good time until the lovely man on reception was asked to help us with our next hotel booking as we were going from one Logis to another. He was amazingly helpful and then took it upon himself to tell us how to get to the start of the next Velo Route and finally about 45 minutes later we were able to go. In the meantime quite a few rather miserable people were coming into the hotel and waiting for appointments. We thought they were looking for work but it transpired that there was a gold dealer in resid
ence and they were making the most of his expertise. We hope they got fair prices.River Agout through Castres
Today’s route was exclusively on another Voie Verte which wound it’s way through the most stunning countryside.
Route de Pigeonniers
We were heading almost due north and for once there was little wind and lots of sun. In this area they are very organised and every few hundred yards you get a little sign telling you the names of the various trees, plants and birds that you might see en route. The cuckoos are out in force along with the usual many warblers that sing divinely but are impossible to see. The senses prevail here again as it is the centre for growing rose garlic and you can smell the fields some time before you come upon the acres of crops.
Rose garlic which has it's own AOC
We passed Lautrec which is a village perched on top of a hill, so I am afraid that we admired it from afar. It is the family home of Toulouse Lautrec although he wasn’t actually born in the village.
Lautrec Village
There were no other cyclists until the very end when a handsome boy asked if we spoke English. He was on his gap year and was working for some locals, and had borrowed their bike. Despite being a lovely route there was not a single place on the 30 miles to stop to buy anything to eat or drink, and he was as desperate as we were as it was very hot. Sadly we had finished our water by then. By about 4 pm when we realised that there really wasn’t anywhere to stop, we sat on the side of the path and raided our emergency supplies of 3 small cakes from the hotel breakfast and 2 oranges. The saddest moment was when we discovered that we had left a beautiful bar of chocolate in the hotel fridge!
We made up for it with an excellent supper near the Cathedral.
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