Day Twenty Five: Beziers to Colombier: It's A Trap!

April 21, 2017

We quickly learned where everything (dishes, spare toilet paper, books, maps, pens, etc.) was in our Beziers "apartment". Although hotels and restaurants can be great, it is much more relaxing to cook your own stuff and then have the rewarding experience of washing the dishes.

In the morning I nipped around the corner to the bakery for croissants. Again, great to sit at your "own" table, get butter from the fridge, make some coffee, and eat fresh croissants.

The view from our window at the pilgrims' shelter

In the shelter a full wall sized movie poster. There were lots of other St Jacques oriented items

Another advantage of the situation was that we could leave a note for Gerard and then leave our bikes in the garage while strolling out to see the cathedral.

The cathedral on the hill was not far from our apartment on the hill. But we obviously did not stike out on the optimum path. A man stopped us to say that if we were looking for the cathedral (how did he know that two dazed looking bright yellow walkers could be on the way to the main tourist attraction?) we were going the wrong way. "No, no, it's this way", I said. "Look buddy" he said (or French equivalent) "I have lived here all my life and you go this way!". There is no real reason for me to be reporting this little interaction except that it felt good to exit our apartment and be chatting with a real local, especially a rather gruff one.

In front of the cathedral, school children on assignment were sketching aspects of the architecture. It stems from the 13h century, but that is a johnny come lately development. The original church was built much earlier - 8th century, on the ruins of a Roman temple. But that was destroyed during the Albigeois war, said a wall plaque. We take the Albigeois war to refer to the crusade against the Cathars. Ah yes, and the main name in that war was Simon de Monfort (father, not son) who seemed to charge around sacking all kinds of towns. This area had some tough, fortified ones too, like Carcasonne and Toulouse.

The cathedral inside seemed quite romanesque, though its pamphlet refers to it as Baroque - yes, maybe the decor. A big feature for us was that it had an actual staffer, meaning that we got a creanciale stamp.

In the cathedral, there was someone who could stamp our creanciales

The big doors under the organ are seldom used, because of the prevailiing wind, the "tremontane".

We circulated back to the Tourist Information and thanked them for being on the ball about the pilgrim accommodation. But we also ranted a bit about the state of the Canal du Midi path, pointing out that it was not really usable for a loaded touring bike. "Ah, but then you will have to use the roads" was the reply. Yeah well, more on that later!

We did buy a book about the construction of the Canal. It really is quite an amazing thing, especially considering it was done in the 1600's.

We asked the TI for the location of an "epicerie", which to us is a grocery store, and we know they use the word here. But the lady seemed puzzled about what we were asking for. Instead she directed us to Les Halles, the covered market. Good move, because there we found good fruits and vegetables and also cheese and yogurt. An indoor market is a little more staid than an outdoor one, but still an adventure. For example check out the hams, with the hoofs still attached.

In the TI, lots of books about the Cathars. Cathars were a religious sect in the 11 and 1200's declared a heresy by the Pope. Their cities in the midi region were attacked around 1244. The DaVinci Code maintains they were protecting secrets about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and that at the end of the year long seige of Montsegur, documents about this were smuggled out.

Read a bit of the Cathar story. What happened next? Dunno - book too heavy to carry!

In the indoor market, Dodie has an animated discussion with the fruit lady. Not sure about what, but it gave me time to choose a nice cheese.

There are so many cheeses at any French market.

Just a nice building in old town Beziers

Two bicycle police model helmets. They have Beziers Police lettering on them. We told these fellows we need helmet that say "Pilgrim".

We returned to the gite and made sure everything was 100% as we had found it. There is nothing we could have done to improve it - no cleaning, repairing, or arranging, because all had been completely in order.

Walking down the twisty streets heading for the lower town, we ran into Gerard, and had the chance to snap a farewell photo. His is a very nice man.

Dodie and Gerard as we say final goodbyes in the street.

Now the "fun" began. We knew that the canal path was not really a viable long distance travel option. Plus construction work on the canal at Beziers had put the path out of service in the general area anyway. Reading our previous blog told us that in this exact situation in 2013 we had taken the busy D11/D5 straight our of the area. But now, as fallout from having been hit on a similar road in Florida, we were not about to go that way.

So the plan was to use the GPS and to follow smaller roads. We crossed one of the many bridges that span the Orb river at Beziers, and began. The first time we were stymied when our chosen road dead ended, entangled in the construction. The second time a chosen road arrived at the autoroute and contrary to what it looked like on the GPS, there was no way to cross. The third time, and attempt to follow the detour signs on the Canal path lead us in circles.

With each failed attempt to escape the city we seemed to find ourselves ultimately back at the same traffic circle (rond point), called the rond point d'Occitanie. There is a good view of the cathedral and bridges near there. I got lots of shots of this view.

Finally we determined to have one last try, and if not, to take a darn train out of there. We put our finger on a likely spot outside the trap, and told the GPS to just get us there. It suggested the canal path, but we knew better and took a miss, so it had to recalculate. It did finally get us out and beyond the canal path disruption area. So then we bumped and wiggled along the normal, attrocious path, finally arriving late and beat at Colombier. Colombier is so close to Beziers it's laughable. In fact the people in the Colombier TI did laugh when they asked where we had started today. By car, the distance is 7 km, maybe 5. We had gone 22, in circles and dead slow over rough terrain or hills.

Some of the bridges of Beziers. There are four or five in close proximity.

The cathedral and one bridge. I have lots of shots like this, taken from similar spots but hours apart as we fruitlessly try to leave the city.

It's a trap! Look at the red noose of big roads around Beziers. The smaller yellow ones are pesky too. There is not much to see in terms of the white roads we need.

I was for taking a train to better cycling turf - we know for certain the canal path becomes wide and smooth at Castlenaudry, for example. But the TI people squelched that - no train here. Rent a boat? No. Suggest safe but paved roads. - None, they said. So we were locked in for a further 110 km of dirt one track!

Dodie wisely declared that it was time to quit for the day. So TI set about finding us a place. No hotels in this town, but there are several gites. No luck on the phone at first, but they managed to convince one to take us in.

Wow, what a score it was too. "La Colombiere" is the place of Pierre Claude and Evelyne Metenier. It is on a large property with lawns and gardens. Plus there is a pool and a hot tub. A poolside gazebo building has coffee makers and cooking equipment, and this is where we will take the included breakfast tomorrow. Our room is better appointed (and way cleaner) than our own back home, plus it looks out over the pool, garden, and the canal. Not to put ideas into Pierre's head, but this level of luxury should be in the 100's of euros category. But all he asks is 79 euros.

Pierre set us up in the gazebo to eat our humble sandwiches, adding espresso and local wine. We did out explanation about not drinking wine, but tried some anyway. Actually, it was pretty good.

Pierre also had some good news for us. There is Herault a Velo route 8 right at the corner here, and it will take is on quiet roads to Argeliers, I think. That's 20 km, anyway. Beyond that, he thinks the canal path is not so bad, but it is out of his usual stomping grounds, so we'll see.

The local TI did well for us, but obviously they did not know about the Herault a Velo route. Herault is the applicable departmental government, so that is a bit strange. One other TI anecdote - while we were ranting about the non cycle path by the canal, the young lady expressed embarrassment because she receives so many complaints like that. Further, she says that when contacting the canal authorities to convey these complaints she is told that in fact the path is barred to bicycles except by special permit. We pulled the Canal du Midi advertising materials from the young lady's own racks and showed the bicycle pictures on the cover. Desolee, eh.

Canal du Midi information materials. Note that bicycles figure on both covers. Hah!

We can not recommend this place too highly.

Pierre and Dodie behind La Colombiere, at the Canal. Actually, the path looks very reasonable at that point.

Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 1,187 km (737 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0