Day 67: Deyme to Grisolles

September 23, 2013

A morning squeeze test on the tires revealed Dodie's back one to be soft again. I pumped it from 40 up to 80 psi, and we set off. With no wind, it was pure pleasure to get back on the well paved canal path and cruise on toward Toulouse, which was 20 km distant. As we got closer to town, traffic on the path naturally increased, with commuters, babies in carriers, etc. The riders were slightly crazed, like the drivers, and I played chicken a lot to drive oncoming people back on to their own side of the path, as they swerved around pedestrians.

We resumed the lovely Canal path in the morning.

As we approached Toulouse traffic on the path increased significantly, and the people got crazier

Not sure what this Canadiqn invader is, but at least its not us!

Fairly near to town, as we checked our maps, Stephan popped up to offer assistance. He pointed out the bike shop locations and other important features, and importantly, put our minds at rest as to the condition of the Garonne canal path to Bordeaux - it's paved!

Bike shop was now a topic since Dodie's tire was losing air. We think the tire has an undetectable minute imbedded shard. Anyway, it is getting too

many slow leaks. Our other plan was to find the two cathedrals in town, and so hopefully to get a good overview of its more scenic areas.

Maybe just because of where we came in, we got an immediate impression of the city as very green and with lots of parks. We walked briefly through one park and then rode down some very leafy streets. In fact, it was a little hard to form an idea of what the buildings were like, because there were no clear views of them.

A typically leafy and untrafficked Toulouse main street

We made our way to the first cathedral, St. Etienne. This was an interesting building with sections constructed all the way from ancient times to the last century. It's hard to know, sometimes, what is of interest inside a church (if it lacks pink cherubs and gold trim, my favourite). In this case, I liked the wooden benches and the strange painting pictured below. There was also the tomb of Pierre Paul Riquet, the builder of the Canal du Midi.

On to the bike shop, we could now see some of the buildings and streets of the town more closely. Generally, the main streets are broad, but free of many lanes of speeding traffic, and the buildings are generally less than 5 stories. So these are good attributes for a city. On the other hand, while nice, the city did not grab us as having an abundance of charm or character.

The bike shop we eventually found was Decathlon. This major French outdoor retailer is one I have never been in. This time, I only got part way into the bike department, as "someone" hustled me out. However we did find time in there for an unbelievable encounter - four folks from Vancouver, two of whom had Bike Fridays, heading the other way from us along the Canal. We were able to warn them about the trail condition, and give them the map we had since found for the portion from Toulouse to the Mediterranean.

Our next target was St Sernin cathedral, an 11th century structure in the centre of town. St Sernin has also given his name to a nearby pub, and to a lycee (high school). The vicinity of the church was littered with students, though significantly none were inside. The church had busts of some of its "alumni", like St Vincent de Paul, and St Agathe, names we know well from the Montreal area.

We got turned around on the way out, and asked directions to the canal. Amazingly, people were unsure. However one fellow on the street corner had no problem deciding to stop a car to, ask the driver for us. This caused an immediate jam up of cars, but nobody honked.

When we reached the approximate point where the Garonne canal would leave town, I asked directions and the person inquired where we wanted to go. The answer "Bordeaux" produced that satisfying "you are Crazyguys!" response. And when I added "and Nantes", our totally insane status was firmly established. I didn't think the person's system could take it, so I did not add " and Orleans", or anything clearly fantasy like that.

Well we did get onto the Garonne canal, toward Bordeaux. For at least 20 km beyond the trees were suburbs. When finally individual villages emerged, it was time to stop. Besides, Dodie's tire was losing air more rapidly now. We had bought a new BMX style tire at Decathlon, but had not put it on yet. That involves a lot of unpacking and flipping of the bike, something best left until evening in camp.

At Grisolles a sign pointed to camping, and the GPS had it as well. Only the GPS had a different route from the arrow on the sign. I said we should follow the GPS, since it is optimized for a bike route. Three km later it announced "You have arrived", in the middle of nowhere in the town of Canals. Dodie went into a shop and got the person there to phone the camping to verify where it was. Answer, basically back in Grisolles, where that sign was.

So Dodie's tire chose this time to go totally and unpumpably flat. This produced the scene of us trudging along a high speed road, looking for the darn camping, 3 km away. Grrr. When we found the camping, it was up a very steep, road. Really hard to push the crippled bike, but also no sense in unpacking and fixing the tire there. Grrr.

When we finally reached our camp, site and flipped the bike, I asked Dodie to pose for me with a peevish look. Somehow she had no trouble coming up with it!

On the other hand we are on a nice easy run towards Bordeaux, and though the wind is blowing on me as I write this, it has actually been calm or a tail wind today. So our target, Bordeaux anyway, is not so crazy after all.

Each section of this glass is a little picture

From a large painting on the wall. Not sure if this is Jesus, in which case I didnt know he was that into horses, or if someone else, then who, and why?

The grave of the canal builder Pierre Paul Riquet

Pierre Paul Riquet, builder of the canal and very famous in Toulouse

The Maison du Velo was mainly a cafe, but had good maps of the canals

About as close as I have gotten to shopping at Decathlon in two trips to France

The St Sernin lycee had swarms of kids in all surrounding streets

St Vincent de Paul, apparently a St Sernin alumnus

The church also has a pub (at least, one named for it)

St Sernin, the second cathedral on our cathedral oriented Toulouse visit (third cathedral was Decathlon!)

How about this informative cycle signage?

10 km down the Garonne, Toulouse suburbs

20 km down the Garonne, Toulouse suburbs

The Garonne canal and cycle path. Nice, but not as great as the Canal du Midi

Trudging the fast road with a flat at day's end

Dodie found it easy to seem peevish with her bike and the GPS

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 4,473 km (2,778 miles)

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