It's a good thing I always put everything away before retiring because around 2 a.m. I woke to raindrops. I closed the fly, which I had been leaving open for any whiff of cooling, and then the main event started. Thunder and lightning for at least an hour and rain that continued.
The rain finally let up around 7:30 and I started packing up. It was actually quite pleasant by the time I rolled into town in search of a bakery for breakfast. It was market day! I bought some cheese and cherry tomatoes and a demi-baguette for lunch and I already had some apricots. Since I'd eaten the three little containers of yogurt left from last night (I haven't found singles, only four- or six-packs) and drunk my orange juice (and used the rinsed container for the rest of the wine), I only had one pastry with my coffee.
I got on the D 620 leaving town and followed it all the way to Chalabre. The rain started again but not too hard and I just kept going, enjoying not being hot. There were a couple of climbs but the lower temperature made them enjoyable.
Cherry trees? I saw several orchards covered like this, which I've never seen in British Columbia's Okanagan (source of BC cherries and other tree fruit).
From Chalabre I took the D 16 north until I crossed into l'Ariège and it became the D 7. A few kilometres further and there's a large ruin on a hill. It was Château Lagarde, which I decided not to visit, but I enjoyed my lunch in a park (a place de boules) just outside its walls.
It wasn't much further to Mirepoix but now the sun was out and the temperature set to "broil." Coming into town there are signs informing everyone that the centre ville and RD 625 would be closed on the afternoon of July 12 for the Tour de France. It would be fund to see the circus pass through, but I don't want to wait 4 days!
Yes, the TdF is coming through! I don't think SuperU will make it to the TV feed, though.
No problem to dry my tent so the municipal campground it was. Nice sites here, the best yet. I set up my wet fly and groundsheet and laid out the tent on the grass while chatting with a British expat and his wife. They spend their summers here in their camping trailer while renting out their house in the south of Spain. Here because their daughter and grandchildren live nearby. He's 83 and rides his bike three or four days a week year round. A nice way to spend one's retirement.
My thanks to Scott Anderson for mentioning Mirepoix in his journal! Otherwise I would never have thought to stop here. Even the few French people I had mentioned this plan to had never heard of it. I don't think my French pronunciation is that bad, but maybe it is.
In any case, it's well worth visiting. I sat and enjoyed a beer and a carafe of water. It's so nice in France not to have to buy water in cafés and restaurants like we had to in Germany last year. I wandered around, looked at the buildings, and selected a restaurant for a real dinner. It turned out to be my best meal yet in France, and I'll put a plug in here for Restaurant "Le grain de sel" because not only was the food excellent, they suggested I bring my bike inside! I enjoyed every bit of my 20€ menu with 1/4 rosé and rode back to my tent sated.
My Garmin shut itself off again today so distance is a estimate: 50 km
