May 5, 2022
To Millau
The clouds were very low this morning but it was not raining and the roads appeared to be mostly dry. Breakfast had been scheduled for a little later start at 09:00 in hopes that the weather would continue to improve. Today would also be a shorter ride to Millau - the largest center on the Tarn - so an early start would not be necessary.
We found it hard to believe that after completely stuffing ourselves at dinner last night we were ready to eat again this morning, but Nadine our host was expecting us. She had prepared a simple continental breakfast but everything was of a top notch locally sourced quality. What we could not eat she wrapped up and organized for our lunch.
We left the small village of Melvieu without really having a look around other than seeing the local church and a few surrounding buildings. At 10:15 we said good bye to Nadine and were back on the road to complete the final part of the hill that we had left from yesterday`s ride. We were on our way to Saint Victor which is about 5 kms away. Saint Victor is the other part of the two joined communes known as Saint-Victor-et-Melvieu. Combined they have a population of a little more than 300 inhabitants.
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Our ride began in low clouds but by the time we reach Saint Victor we had removed our jackets and the sun was starting shine. We explored the small town and were impressed with its beauty of course, but also how well kept and clean everything appeared. Another pretty, small town in France.
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We added a layer of clothing back on, in anticipation of a twisty turny 9 km downhill run to Saint-Rome-de-Tarn. The divided highway we had been on became a narrow single lane road as we made our way downhill toward the river. The ride was nothing but fun as we zig zagged back and forth taking each sharp turn carefully. It was a long way down and Pat was glad that this was not the route we had needed to get up to Melvieu! As an added bonus we only saw one car and that was coming from the other direction when we had stopped at a picnic area to look down from above at the river.
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Saint-Rome-de-Tarn, our first stop, was a perfect location for our daily coffee break. We stopped at he local hotel / restaurant and were seated at a sunny table on the patio to enjoy our espresso and cappuccino. It was the lunch hour and the inside restaurant was vey busy, so it must be a good place for lunch. From Scott`s research, there was no space available in the hotel last night either.
We were now half way to Millau, our destination for the day, as we crossed the bridge to the North side and continued our ride along the Tarn.
A few kilmetres outside of Millau, riding around a corner you see the most amazing sight. The Viaduc de Millau. The bridge has been consistently ranked as one of the greatest engineering achievements of modern times. In fact, Tripadvisor shows that a tour of the bridge is the number one thing to do when visiting Millau. It is kind of cool to ride underneath it but that was the extent of our site seeing.
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We arrived in Millau in the early afternoon and the skies were getting black. After checking into our room - the skies opened! Sure enough, we had just beat the rain again. We spent some time catching up on the blog and then went out to the see a bit of the town. It was an early night for us.
One last note: Our hotel in Barcelona has advised that our suitcases have arrived!
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Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 195 km (121 miles)
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2 years ago