The sleepy quiet town has come to life. People are every where as we walk our bikes amongst the kiosks selling garden plants, fruits and vegetables, cheese, breads, olives, fresh chickens and so much more. We picked up a couple of items for our lunch and made our way to the main square. It too is full of stands. This barren, vacant space yesterday afternoon is now buzzing with stalls and people. This is the France we love!
We easily exited Villefranche-de-Rouergue and rode the first ten kilometres quite quickly on the D47, which was a very quiet highway. At Monteils we decided to stay on it rather than the route Scott had preplanned as the pavement was lovely and there was no traffic. We started our first climb of the day that took us to a high plateau. The flat ride soon gave way to a full on downhill when Scott recognized a noticeable change in the pavement - not that it had deteriorated but a different kind of paving. He immediately stopped as we were now using mapsme to guide us and not the usual Garmin routing. It was a good thing as we had crossed the Aveyron and the Tarn-et-Garonne regional border and our turn off was half a kilometre back up the hill!
We took a short detour to stop on this bridge to have a look. Sadly, Pat dropped her favourite sunscreen over the side while we were admiring the view.
We found our turn on a small rural road and were soon heading quickly downhill again to Laguépie. It was well past time for our coffee break and bordering a lunch stop. The only place in town was a character local bar with seats outside in front in the sun. It was the kind of place where older men hang out in the afternoon have a beer or two and tell stories. It was getting so warm we chose a table in the shade. With our usual coffee orders in place, we munched on a some snacks we had with us.
At the confluence of the Aveyron and Viaur river is the small village at Laguépie. Did not see any windsurfing.
The bar refilled our water bottles and we were off across the Aveyron and Viaur Rivers. We selected the D9 instead of the busier D922 but soon turned off even that, and began to climb out of the valley along some very rural backroads. Some were so steep pushing almost became a necessity but we made it cutting back and forth through a maze of roads until we again reached an intersection with the D922. At his point there were few cars and we decided we needed to get some miles in if we were going to get to Albi today. We started on the highway and entered a long long downhill at speeds over 40 kms per hour (for Scott - not nearly that for Pat!) on the smooth pavement. We were making time now!! We turned off the D922 and continued further downhill into the village of Salles. Salles is also located near several small rivers in a valley.
We were now within twenty kilometres of Albi but one last hill needed to be conquered before we reached today's destination. Pierre, our host last night warned us that this was hilly country! We powered up the hill and what a reward! The ride ended with a steep 10% grade, happily downhill! As it always does when we reach larger centres, the traffic increased noticably on the outskirts of Albi. We found a bike lane and made our way into the town center and located our apartment for the next two nights. There are lots of young people out in the bars and on the street. Albi looks like a fun place to visit!
Heading downhill to Albi. Nice to be downhill at the end of the day.
