Day Twenty Six: Colombiers to Le Somail: Let Them Eat Olives

April 22, 2017

Pierre produced a full on German style breakfast, even frying an egg over hard for me. There is no doubt that a breakfast like that, with ham/bacon, egg, and cheese produces more cycling power than just croissant and coffee. So after a final photo goodbye, we said au revoir to a place and a host that had been the best ever. (Quasi-legal note so as not to offend anyone - that is best ever in France and outside of friends and family, and up to that moment - because we are currently staying with the competition - see below.)

Pierre whips up some fried eggs and an omelette too

Grampies and Pierre-Claude, in Colombiers. We hope to stay in touch. There is so much we liked about Pierre - his industry and the beautiful home he created, kindness towards us, and committment to having France stay in Europe for the benefit of everyone.

The power breakfast turned out to be very useful, and that use came into play not far from Pierre's door. Often the Grampies on their doddery bikes slowly blunder into things and places that they had no idea about. Now in this case we had received a guestbook message from Joanne Scott saying that in this area we should check out Oppidum Enserune and Etang Montady. She did not mention Malpas Tunnel, but no matter, while we had vaguely heard of some of this, we were mainly focussed on making some progress in moving on. So that's what we were doing, just minutes from Pierre's gate, when one Grampie said to the other "Say, are my brakes broken or are we going up hill?". Well duh. In fact the Grampies had blundered into an area that concentrates three of the zippiest and best known features of the Columbiers area.

Following an ancient Roman road (which is not evn one of the three features) we had begun to climb a hill known as Enserune. It is not a mountain, but a fairly tall and long hill. Perched on the top is an archeological site of a Gallic village (or oppidum) that had been occupied from the 6th century b.c. until the 1st century a.d. It was then abandoned and other places, like Narbonne and Beziers developed here. In 1915 the site was rediscovered and developed as a research site. At the top of the hill (though we did not make it quite that far) is a museum and many sites of houses, water storage tanks, and such like.

But there is more story to the hill. The Canal du Midi needed to pass by this area, and normally would have gone around the hill. But in 1679 Paul Riquet, the primary architect of the Canal determined that it would be too costly and time consuming to go around. He wanted to go through, meaning a tunnel. But there were fears the composition of the ground would have the tunnel collapsing. So Colbert, the boss (finance minister of Louis XIV), vetoed it. Riquet secretly pushed in a 165 meter demo tunnel for proof of concept. By the time Colbert cottoned on, the proof was already in place. Riquet had acted fast, taking only a week for the demo.

So today the Canal du Midi passes under that Grampie hill, in what is known as the Malpas tunnel (short for bad passage). But that is not all, at different levels there is also a 13th century aqueduct and also a 19th century train tunnel.

Finally, climbing the hill gives a total view of Montady pond. This was a swampy area that had become unhealthy and not good for agriculture. so in 1247 the Archbishop of Norbonne gave authorization to drain it. The drainage channels were done in a starburst pattern, to a central lagoon, and from there to the aqueduct under the hill. On maps, this starburst pattern is very apparent, and looks like all the drainage canals seen on maps of Holland. From the hill, the pattern is still quite visible.

We did try to get to the very top of the hill, burning up Pierre's breakfast at a dangerous rate. But a parking lot and sign told us that the site was more extensive than we thought, and we realized we did not have time for it. So we zoomed down and carried on on the other side.

From here and on to Capestang village we followed a bicycle route called Herault a Velo 8. TI had not known about it, but Pierre did! We passed olive groves and many grape plantings. With many of the vines we thought they must already be in flower. But a close inspection showed that the "not green" bits were actually dead leaves. We puzzled over what virus could be killing the vines. Finally I stopped at a trailside restaurant and asked the proprietor what was going on. Frost, was the answer. Just a day or two of it. Some of his friends had lost 80% of their crop. But the vines weren't dead - just a year's work lost.

Capestang appeared, with its St Etienne church rising above the vines in our first view. Close up, we learned how the chuch had been built on the ruins of earlier churches. However even this one is under threat of decay, and inside was an appeal to join in its preservation. Unlike many churches, this one had no grand organ, only a kind of closet sized one. Still it was a nice looking instrument and would look great in any room.

Beside the church were several extremely old houses. One Romanesque 12th century one had a plaque depicting it in its prime. It is interesting to compare the plaque with my photo.

The closet sized organ - still a nice instrument

From Capestang Herault a Velo 8 wandered off our route, going north. So it looked like we would be back on the rotten Canal path. Dodie was resigned to it, but I went off to track down the TI. They confirmed it. There was no safe way to continue except on the track.

Bump, bump, bang, swerve - that track can be brutal. Also there is a total lack of signage. We often found ourselves 'sidetracked" and having to double back. In one case, a canal entered from the direction of Narbonne and we got shot off in completely the wrong direction. No signs of any kind, except one visible only to boats.

At several points we touched on the D11, the road we had used 4 years ago to shoot right through this area. But now we looked at it and decided too dangerous. That accident in Florida continues to take its toll. But family members reading this will be glad to know we chose to come home alive, assuming at 3 kph we ever do make it home!

Very many Plane trees along the canal have had to be cut down. These are replacements.

There is pretty much zero signage for cyclists. Here, would you have gone left or right? We went left - wrong, dead end in 1/2 km!

The D11, this year judged not safe for Grampies.

Finally, after covering just 40 km our day ended at Le Somail. As is often the case, good came from a rather poor situation. Le Somail is a little jewel extending just a short distance on either side of the Canal. But it used to be an overnight stop for a Sete to Toulouse passenger boat service, and featured five nifty sights - a picturesque bridge dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, a guest house, a building used to house horses that worked the tow path, a building used to store ice, and a chapel. Four of these are visible from the window of our guest house by the canal.

But Le Somail has some other stuff too. The grocery takes the form of a boat in the canal. Well stocked, actually. And there are four restaurants clusterd by the bridge. Next, a crazy one. It's a book store called Le Trouve Tout du Livre. This is a neat and well organized giant store housing zillions (lost their pamphlet so not sure how many zillions) of new, used, and antique books. It was started by a lady, with just a few books, and it somehow grew, and grew. so now in this teeny tiny place is a huge book collection.

We bought a, well sure, cycle guide to the Canal. It's a great one from Editions Ouest-France, to go with our other great ones. Maybe we are hoping that enough great cycle guides will actually make the cycling great.

The final good thing in Le Somail is our B&B, called Le Neptune. It is in a very solid three story building right by the bridge. The owners are Dirk and Inge Demeulenare. This Belgian couple bought the place a year ago. Perhaps it was already renovated then, but it is very nice - with marble stairs, tile floors, new plumbing, and eclectic decorations. Most fun and entertaining, though, were Dirk and Inge.

We started off in French, but gradually learned that Dirk's english is quite a bit better than our French. He actually speaks six languages. Freed a bit to learn the back story of the B&B, I found out that Dirk and Inge orginally bought an old train station somewhere in France, and renovated it to become a vacation rental, which they themselves would use part time. But there was so much renovation work to do that there was no vacation in it for Dirk. One year, then, he rented a vacation house near here, and had a restful time. So the couple began to come to this region and eventually found Le Somail and the building we are in.

Dirk has a good sense of humour and keen intellect. Used to be a banker in Belgium, but got fed up with the business practices. He invited us to sit down for some wine an olives. Now, we successfully turned the wine to orange juice, but Dirk really wanted us to try the olives. I like olives, especially tapenade, but Dodie DESPISES them. In a grocery store with an open olive display, she will detour two aisles to get away from them.

This Dodie position was very hard on Dirk. The reason is that just a few km from here is the Oulibo olive mill. This seems to be the premier olive and olive oil producer of France. Right here! They use the unique Lucques du Languedoc olives, run tours of the plant with a 6 euro admission, and have a large factory store and boutique. So Dirk really wanted Dodie to try the olives.

Dodie re-explained that she hates olives. But, Dirk responded, these special olives don't even really taste like olives! It was the north going zak and the south going zak and neither would budge. I made a video of the confrontation!

In the end, Dirk relented and Dodie got some homemade yogurt dip with her baguette and orange juice. Now I - liked the tapenade alot. But as to the whole olives - they don't really taste like olives, I complained. Poor Dirk - you just can't win!

Our B&B, "Le Neptune", in Le Somail (59 euros including breakfast, plus very entertaining hosts)

View from our window, chapel and original Le Somail guest house.

Part of our room. It also had a quite big tub!

Another angle from our window - what a cute place!

House rules, that Dodie found amusing and good.

Look Jeremy - good books to hollow out and make into secret safes

This illustrated Davinci Code shows photos of stuff we have been hunting down.

Restaurant menu. Note first item. This is why we often call the French people 'Frogs"

Dodie and Dirk argue fairly good naturedly about olives.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,227 km (762 miles)

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