Toulouse to Castelnaudary: along the canal

October 27, 2009

Weather: sunny and warm with strong headwind

We ate as much as we could at the breakfast buffet, packed up and ferried everything down the tiny elevator. We left the hotel about 10:00 and headed across town to the Canal du Midi. There was a lot of glass on the path at first, but this stopped when we got out of Toulouse proper. The path was beautifully paved and and lined with plane trees, and the canal was very scenic, with occasional boats moving slowly by.

The path along the Canal du Midi leading south out of Toulouse.

It was still a little cool when we started along the canal.

After a few hours it warmed up and we had to stop to change into shorts.

The temperature was lovely and warm, and we soon changed into short sleeved jerseys and shorts. After awhile a wind started up which seemed to be blowing in the wrong direction—en face—towards us. We had read that the wind along the canal blows from the Atlantic to the Med, but this headwind got stronger and stronger, and was definitely slowing us down.

We passed several small villages that were visible through the trees a short distance away from the canal.

The canal was quiet, with only the occasional boat passing, but most of the way we had a nice headwind, with little white caps on the water.

After about 30 km, we were really tired, and got off the canal path at Gardouch to find a place to eat. There was no restaurant in the tiny town, only a little sports bar, so we stopped there, and the very nice woman at the counter made us baguettes with ham and about ½ pound of emmenthal cheese, along with a glass of red wine. Instead of sports, there was a cooking show on the large-screen TV, which was fun to watch. It felt so good to get off the bikes and out of the wind for awhile.

We went back to the canal and the excellent paving continued for about another 15 km, before abruptly stopping at a sign which told us we were leaving the Garonne region. The path became hard-packed gravel, but still quite decent for another few km. Then at a lock house, the young woman lock keeper was completely sure that we should cross over and take the path on the other side of the canal, which turned into a tiny little dirt track lined with roots and covered with leaves in places. This felt quite precarious with our loaded bikes, and not wanting to pitch into the water, we exited the track after about a kilometre. We rode the last 15 km up and down gentle hills on a small road through fields into Castelnaudary. The strong headwind continued the whole time, and we were very glad to reach today's destination, the Hotel du Canal, which reminded us of a typical motel in North America.

Castelnaudary is the home of cassoulet, made with white beans grown in the area, and containing sausage and duck confit as well as other meats all baked together in a traditional earthenware cooking vessel, a cassole. The dish is very filling and fatty, and did not appeal to us, so we made do with a rather mediocre lighter dinner at a small restaurant in the town centre.

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 319 km (198 miles)

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