Day 23 - Le Rozier to Saint Léons - Gorging in France ...Then Basquing in the Pyrenees - 2023

May 10, 2023

Day 23 - Le Rozier to Saint Léons

Just Be’causses’

Today we bid the Tarn adieu as we start making our way over to the Lot for a little more gorging, but first we’ll make a little out-and-back excursion west of Millau to check out the civil engineering marvel, and very aesthetically Norman Foster designed, Millau viaduct suspension bridge.

After that, guess what. We climb! It’s inevitable, but to get out of any of these deep gorges, you have to climb. This is going to be another one of those ah-ha moments we think though. The entire time we’ve been riding in the bottom of the (endless) gorges here in France, as we look up at the sheer walls and rugged tops of the canyons, we’ve had the impression that we’re riding through deep mountain valleys (maybe because that’s what we’re used to?). However, we know from pictures, and the maps we’re using, that the top of the canyons are not mountain tops, but the edges of nice rolling flattish plateaus with pastures and farms. We know this to be true on paper, but we’ve yet to see and experience these ‘causses’ for real.

Until today.

Another short day, both for cycling and blogging, but also thankfully for pics. Aunt Betty’s away today so a blissfully brief pictorial recap of the day will follow.

We made a few changes of our original itinerary for the next few days for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we’ve realized that 80 km and 1300 m+ of elevation gain in a day is at, or really beyond, the limit of what we can do day-on-day, and our original plan had a couple of these back-to-back, Second, we’ll be heading more or less NW to reach the Lot valley and the weather over the next few days shows cool to cold temps with winds of 20-40 km/hr blowing from the NW. Third, we want to add a visit to Rodez into our itinerary. These factors resulted in today’s modified ride - down the Tarn to Millau, a short out and back to check out the bridge and then a steep climb up into the Grands Causses where we’ll be for the next couple of days as we work our way to the Lot.

With that, how did it go? Very well indeed is the answer.

It was cool when we set off in the morning, and the winds were coming from the NW as forecast, but at the lower end of the forecasted range. We arrived in Millau right around noon and our plotted route was taking us right through the centre of town to get out to the west to see ‘the bridge’. It was a bit hectic to make our way through the heavy traffic, but within minutes of leaving the very busy city centre we were back onto isolated D roads and within a few km’s basically riding right under the Bridge. I know this isn’t a river gorge or a table full of rich decadent French cuisine, as per the overall theme of this journal …. But it was still really cool!

With the bottom of the bridge ‘done’ we then set off to climb into the Grands Causses. It was a short sharp initial gain of about 300 m in 3 km’s … and we then got a great view down onto the bridge …. Really cool.

What was also really cool was to see that once we climbed out of the steep river gorge and onto the Causses, we were in a very beautiful rolling landscape dotted with fields, pastures, small villages and sections of Forest. Soooo different from what we’d experienced in the gorges, but equally beautiful in its own different way. This was turning out to be a perfect day - bar the 20-30 km head / side wind. Thankfully it was a short ride to Saint Léons, a very pretty and very small village about half way to Rodez where we had booked a Maison d’Hôtes, La Pierre Pointue.

We arrived at 4:30, were warmly greeted by our host Isa and shortly thereafter sitting on a balcony overlooking a beautiful valley having our post ride bevy. Life is truly great.

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SOTD - A Change is Gonna Come - a cover by Her.

Can’t use the original civil rights anthem by Sam Cooke for our lame analogy, but yes ‘a change is gonna come’ for us as we leave the Tarn valley (where we did start by the river in a little tent) and into Les Grands Causses. It’s a pretty great cover in it’s own right by a French trained, German born vocalist, Victor Solf.

Setting off from Le Rozier …. A stunning place that you should visit!

Our last look back to Le Rozier as we head west to Millau

Nice fountain in central Millau … had to wait a while to manage to get this one in without any traffic. It was thick as we were trying to ride through

Heading west of Millau to the viaduct …. That one suspension spire poking it’s top over the ridge

And here’s most of the bridge … and our last crossing of the Tarn

A ‘very’ close up of one of the tallest spires

A stiff but quick climb out of the Tarn valley and we were into the beautiful Grands Causses

And a great view of the viaduct from above

And one with K in it. Ok we’re officially done with the bridge now. On to the rest of the ride

Looking east towards the Tarn. Such a different perspective from up here, but still stunningly beautiful

Lush rolling hills and pastures as we approach Saint Leons

The beautiful small village of Saint Leons and our Maison d’Hôte

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 1,015 km (630 miles)

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