May 13, 2023
Day 19 - Castres to Prémian
It has been brought to my attention that my brother Doug has been slandering me on Facebook. It is NOT true that I lost my bike. It is true that I rode an entire day without wearing my cap under my helmet because I couldn’t find it, only to find it at the end of the day in my jersey pocket. It is also true that I spent a few minutes looking for my gloves until I noticed that I had a glove on my left hand. This confused me momentarily until I deduced that I was not looking for two gloves, but only one glove which I found in my pocket. But I did NOT lose my bike. What happened is that I rode my bike a hundred yards or so away from Doug over to where Donna was looking at something. After dismounting and looking at whatever it was (I don’t remember what), I walked back towards Doug. As I got near him it occurred to me that I was no longer riding a bike and I said, “I forgot my bike”. So I did not lose my bike, I just forgot it.
We left Castres this morning through the town’s central square where the Saturday market was in full swing. The square was very large, and the busy market filled all of it. As we cycled away from the market there was a steady stream of people coming and going pulling what in the states we call “granny carts” for carrying their purchases. It’s great to see that the markets in France are so popular and appeared in no danger of dying out.
The day started on roads, some with a bit of traffic, but soon we got on another rail-trail. This one took us into a low mountain range and over a 1450-foot pass as we headed Southeast. This was a definite change from the rest of the trip that has rarely gotten more than a few hundred feet above sea level and never far from farm fields. We went through several tunnels, the longest being at the pass.
Weather today was cloudy all day, with an hour or so of moderate rain. We arrived at our chambre d’hotel muddy from the past two days of riding dirt rail-trails in the rain and hosed our bikes of in the B&B’s back yard. The Chambre d’hotel is in a beautiful old building, run by a British expat named Allison, so no French practice tonight.
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Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 913 miles (1,469 km)
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