Day 7 - Meyrueis to Millau - Schnooks Tackles the Tarn - Tandem Tour - Sept 2023

September 11, 2023

Day 7 - Meyrueis to Millau

Payback day in the gorge of La Jonte

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Until now, we’ve been riding upstream, which of course means that we’ve been climbing. Today was our first day going downstream and we really enjoyed it!

The hotel was super quiet and comfortable. We both got a decent night’s sleep. After our default breakfast in the room, we were off at 0840.

Again, it was a chilly morning, so extra layers were applied.

Today is also the first day that these strange white things called “clouds” have appeared in the sky.

The ride down the gorge of La Jonte was amazing. Once again, we had smooth, almost empty roads. We stopped frequently to gawk at the scenery. I’ll let Robin’s pictures take over the narrative for a while.

This is Roziers, at the end of the gorge.

We dropped out of the gorge in Roziers and after nosing around the village briefly, we set out for Millau. We were across the river from where we rode on day 3. The road was smaller, almost devoid of traffic, and more rolling than the more major road across the valley.

We joined up with our outbound route in La Cresse, and rolled into Millau to find a Marie Blachère bakery under our noses. A sandwich and two drinks later, we walked over to our hotel, “Hotel de la Capelle” to see whether we could store our bags since we were 2 hours early for checkin.

Amazingly, the lovely lady at the desk checked us in on the spot! The bike found its way into a secure storage location, and we were in our room. Sweet!

After a quick cleanup, we went out with a map from the hotel to do a short walking tour around Millau. We actually got rained on! just a few drops, but it looks like the weather is changing for our final 3 days of riding.

Église Notre-Dame de l’Espinasse. The building is 12th century but the paintings are from 1940.

Place Maréchal Foch, the town’s main market square

The square bottom tower is 12th century. 500 years later, someone had the bright idea to build a new tower on top of the old one.

Medieval house with a thoroughfare designed into it. Early urban planning.

What’s left of the 12th century bridge. A flood in the late 1700’s took out all but two arches. And then some enterprising person built a water mill on what was left.

Tonight we’re taking advantage of an Indian restaurant just up the street from our hotel. French Indian food is generally a bit on the bland side to our taste, but it will still be a nice break from our usual French road food.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 316 km (196 miles)

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Lyle McLeodLooks like it was another beautiful day. The ride through Gorges de la Jonte ended up on the cutting room floor as we tried to pack everything into our tour this spring. I guess we’ll just have to go back! Great that you saw the vultures.
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