July 2, 2023
Taulignan to Saou
I don't want to jinx it, but Tobias might be starting to adjust to french kid in the summer time hours and he managed to sleep in until 8 this morning. We woke up with the rest of the family and shared breakfast and coffee outside. There was not so much hurry to pack so we got away at our usual time. We really enjoyed our stay with Damien and his family. James and Damien are similar in lots of ways and they had a lot of fun talking about lots of different projects.
We biked back into Taulignan for croissants and there was a market on so James checked it out. There was a blacksmith selling lots of tools that James was very interested in but fortunately they weigh too much to even remotely consider and we carried on.
The morning started with a pretty long climb of about 250m into another stiff headwind. Perhaps he was still tired from going to bed late, or perhaps he really doesn't like the wind, but Tobias was not enjoying the climb at all and was being very vocal about it. I was being outwardly very patient and inwardly very frustrated which came out as lots of power on the pedals and James struggled to keep up with me and our whining kid. Eventually we reached a spot where we could stop and have lunch and Tobias was more than ready to go in the trailer (and I was ready for some peace up front on my bike).
The long descent was glorious, but the buffeting winds kept the pace pretty sedate. After reaching about the same elevation as we started the day we crisscrossed along quiet farm roads getting closer and closer to some impressive mountains jutting out on the horizon.
At Puy-Saint-Martin we stopped for peanut butter crepes and to get Tobias up. We gave him the option of staying in the trailer since it was going to be another windy 10km with a slow, steep, climb followed by more gradual uphill. He was adamant he wanted to stay on my bike until about 3 minutes into the climb where he was all done bike and wanted back in the trailer. When we said not for 30 minutes he even told me he had a big poo in his pants to try and make us stop (we did stop, there was no poo, we carried on).
We eventually made it to Saou which sits right underneath some huge cliffs. We had a very stiff climb up to the reception of our campground which just about finished us off. But we found a nice spot with a great view and cooled off with a swim and everyone was feeling much better by the time we had dinner up in the common kitchen. There are a few other adventurous families here including a French family with a tandem to tow a double trailer with their kids.
Tomorrow is a much shorter day with only one real climb to get us out of this valley. The last 2 days we've ended up finishing our day a bit late because of all the headwinds and hills.
Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 2,019 km (1,254 miles)
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