Day 10 - Olargues to Sommieres

I woke up knackered which is never a good start to a long cycling day. Even after a yummy breakfast, my legs properly sulked for the 1st 30km and I had to keep reminding myself how fortunate I am to be able to do these trips. Eventually the cycling happy head space arrived, helped by empty and beautiful Languedoc rolling countryside.

It was the longest ride of the trip but less climbing than the early days (not surprisingly!)

Still nabbing Col photos..

Lunch was at Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, a beautiful medieval village that not surprisingly, was much quieter in September 2020.

The skies were looking ominous as we cycled along the Gorges de Herault but it stayed dry for most of the ride. The speedier riders got caught in a huge storm but us mere mortals just had to ride through huge puddles!

My room is on the ground floor with a huge shower room - my body is very happy with this arrangement.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balades aux croissants

Image
In my 60th year I’m making the most of being fortunate enough to still love travelling on a bicycle. I’ve become increasingly aware of how we just can’t take a healthy life for granted and inspired by lovely cyclists I’ve met on my travels who are determined to keep on pedalling.  My favourite place to cycle is France, I love the food, the scenery and the empty roads. I booked a trip from Biarritz to Bedoin which will be happening in September and after a very busy time at work, made a last minute decision to cycle from St Malo to Nice. I am definitely under trained but hoping the muscle memory will kick in quickly and my poor bum will forgive me. June trip: September trip: I promise there will be lots of photos of patisseries, an occasional prawn and hopefully fields of sunflowers. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving” Albert Einstein 
Read more

Part 2 - Into the mountains

Image
It has been a lovely summer in Cambridgeshire (unless you like green lawns) with great weather for cycling. I had a delightful week of gravel riding in Northumberland and have tried to keep the fitness going despite too much work stuff. As usual, I’m not convinced I have done enough training for this trip but we shall see! After not enough sleep, I flew from hideous Stansted to delightful Biarritz. The welcome meeting started at 11.30am and I arrived at 11.29! We then had a delicious lunch followed by a warm up ride. I pootled off on my own to get used to the hire bike and happily rode down the coast road then back inland via beautiful country roads. The bike is comfortable and fits well, I just need to re-attach my hill climbing legs. The group dinner was at 8pm so I decided to buy myself a boulangerie picnic and have an early night to catch up on sleep. I also wanted to have a walk around beautiful Biarritz as I’m only here for one night. Obviously this had to happen before bedtime…
Read more

Day 3 Brissac-Quince to Saint-Loup sur Thouet

Image
Last night’s hotel was run by an unflappable, elegant lady who checked us in, served beers, dinner and breakfast, did the laundry and the check out - a French hotel at its finest! Dinner was a delicious and bargainous 3 course feast for 28€ including wine. I had tabbouleh, paella and creme brûlée tarte. This may be the first cycling trip where I put on weight! Breakfast was at 7.05 am (the boulangerie opens at 7) so that we could get pedalling early and avoid some of forecast heat.  The first part of the ride was along the river Loire, so beautiful with lots of cycle tourists happily pootling along quiet roads. We stopped in Saumur but failed to find an open coffee shop so just a photo stop. 15km further on was Fontevraud L’Abbaye, impressive in itself but more importantly featuring pistachio ice cream. Lunch was next to a canal with noisy frogs,  biting bugs and the best picnic so far. Only 18 miles left to ride after lunch but the temperature had climbed to 35c so a bit of a...
Read more