October 20, 2021
Toulouse to Valence d'Agen
Make hay while the sun shines, the saying goes! It was downright balmy this morning compared to what we've experienced for the past several weeks. We told Jeanne we were headed to a campground in Moissac today, and she said that's not very far. I said of course, you've only driven there. I felt bad later for saying that, because it turns out she was right. How were we to know that the trail would be smooth as glass much of the time, and that we would somehow once again have the wind at our backs? We have been incredibly fortunate to have favorable weather most of the time.
We said goodbye to Jeanne and faced the morning bike rush hour. We rode a good twenty minutes before the trail thinned out enough for us to relax. It was even longer before we felt we were out of the urban/industrial environment, and much longer before we were away from highways and rail lines. At that point, finally, we settled into the laid-back life of the canal. There was just enough activity on the water to make it feel "real", if that makes any sense.
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Today we passed many walkers, and some bikers, but no bike tourists. We both agreed that we should take a day off from alcohol, so we opted for a second breakfast rather than an afternoon drink. I found the perfect spot in Saint-Jory. Their cafés allongés were very allongé, just the way we like them. We also picked up a big crusty rustic-looking baguette to give our lunch an extra punch.
Speaking of lunch, we played the find-a-picnic-table game for a while, then settled for these rocks that worked out pretty well:
The canal is mostly straight, which would normally be boring, but this being our first day back in the "canal zone', we were fine with it. There were a few bendy spots, and lots of big trees that were just starting to turn color and shed their leaves on the water, making for a charming autumn display.
At Montech, there was this contraption they once used to whisk barges up- and downstream, avoiding a flight of five locks. I don't exactly understand how it lifted heavy barges out of the water. It couldn't just have towed the barges, because you'd need the water to be deep enough to float the barge, and that ain't happening on an incline. Right? Maybe there's a video of it in action somewhere.
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Just before Moissac, we encountered another one of those canal-over-the-river bridges. This one had lots of cobblestone to slow us down, and pedestrians to boot. They all yielded to us because we looked so unsure of ourselves on that narrow, bumpy path.
We get to Moissac at 3pm, and I ask Sunyoung whether we should press on. She asks how far, I find a place about 16km down the towpath, but I can't tell if it's open or not. We call two different numbers but all we get is an answering machine. We get the bright idea to visit the tourist info center to see if they can help. We go over a steep canal bridge, then up a couple of hilly streets to get there. We leave with no idea of whether this other place is open, but the campground in Moissac is definitely open. OK, fine, let's go there. We get to this beautiful bridge, the Pont Napoléon, to cross the river, and it turns out they've closed it for repair work! Our only way across is to backtrack to the cobblestone canal bridge. We both agree that we're not going to do that. This is our signal to press on, and to cross our fingers that the campground in Valence is in fact open. To me it seemed that the odds would be pretty low, so I had a couple of hotels picked out as backup plans.
The campground is open, they have sites with picnic tables, and, being a municipal campground, it's dirt cheap. So it seems that we lucked out. Well, except for the mosquitoes, and the rain we're supposed to get tonight. The clouds are shining in front of the moon. The owls are hooting. It's a great time to be camping.
Fresh from a wonderful experience meeting François and Jeanne in Toulouse, I spent part of the evening contacting other potential hosts. I'm just taking the attitude that if it works out, great, and if not, that's great too. For now I'm just looking forward to another day on the canal.
Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 2,670 km (1,658 miles)
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