A long slog over the hills: Millau to Lamalou-les-Bains
I didn't want to lose my reservation in Lamalou-les-Bains and with the trains knocked out I had no recourse but to ride the entire way. I tried to find a route that would have the easiest climbs and still be short enough so I could do it in a single day. I chose to go down the valley of the Tarn to St. Rome de Tarn where I start climbing. I had done this part of the ride two years ago, so I was familiar with the route.
Its not at all a hardship to ride in the Tarn valley. This view of Candas is typical of the villages along the route.
From St. Rome I started the first of what proved to be at least four big climbs. The road leaves the valley to get to a summit near Roquefort, the cheese town. There are a lot of sheep in the area and it from their milk that the cheese is made before being placed in the caves at Roquefort for aging. I was glad that it wasn't hot, because the combination of livestock and heat usually means flies which can be a torment on a long climb. Did you know that a fly can reach a top speed of 15 kph? If you can't go that fast they will "bug" you.
The first summit attained, it was a quick downhill into St.Affrique. Here is a view of the bridges over the river Sorgue that flows through St. Affrique.
There are two routes from St. Affrique to Fondamente. The first follows route departementale all the way, and the second is a rail trail that goes about half way before finishing on country roads. I naturally took the second option. Apart from barriers that you have to circumnavigate at each road crossing the rail trail is a relatively easy climb. The difficulty of this route was not in the gradient, but in the wind. After reaching St. Jean-et-St. Paul, the ferocity of the wind increased, and since it was nearly head on, I adopted survival mode for the rest of the climb. Finally, the road dropped back down to Fondamente. There was a bistro open for lunch, so I pulled in even though it had gone past one o'clock. The menu of the day was duck with lentils, and to be honest wasn't stellar, but hungry as I was I ate it and the apple tart that served for dessert. Then off on the third climb of the day.
From the summit I descended into the valley of the Orb, which I would follow all the way to Lamalou. Or so I thought until I got to a dam the building of which caused the road to be displaced for a few kilometers onto higher ground leaving me with yet another grind to get over this last "bump".
From Fondamente it was another slog uphill to the col de Perail. This marker says its 636 meters high, but it wasn't at the true summit which was about a kilometer further on.
After the last hill, it was just a matter of coasting down hill to Bedarieux and then pedaling the seven kilometers to Lamalou. They were ready for me at the hotel, and after parking my bike in a garage behind this lovely house, I was given a quiet room on the top floor of the hotel. Dinner was served in the hotel dining room. Lamalou is an official station thermale, and people come here for "the cure" which is essentially a watery form of intense physical therapy. There is a clinic in Lamalou that specializes in treating neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's, and ALS. The town is laid out for wheelchairs, and one is constantly in contact with people with severe handicaps. For all that, I found it to be a cheerful place, with a lot of friendly and helpful people.
