Day 37: La Redorte to Castelnaudry

May 2, 2018

I studied up about Easter Island so I could seem a little informed when talking to Florence at breakfast this morning. To review, she moved from Easter Island and bought this B&B three months ago.

Easter Island is way south in the South Pacific, where it is administered by Chile. Like Hawaii it has a volcanic origin, with three volcanoes now extinct. There is a town at one end and a road around, amounting to about 30 km (so not really worth bringing your bike). There are tons of tourists, flying in daily from Santiago, and hotel prices are quite high. The activities are looking at the moai - the iconic stone statues - and climbing the volcanoes. There are two beaches, but most of the shoreline is rocky. That's all I know, a combination of internet and what Florence said. Fortunately, this is a blog about France and not Chile.

We applied our amazing knowledge of France to setting off toward Carcasonne not on the Canal or on a big road but on a manageable small one. We are not quite sure what our first road was - perhaps it had no number. For a time we were in cycling heaven - with a deserted road and lovely fields around. I found myself saying "Ah, this is what true French back road cycling is all about". That scared me, because I have heard us say that before, and it always precedes some kind of road nightmare.

Before anything could go awry we did see some pleasing things. First of all there were the Pyrenees. The sight of the snow capped mountains reminded us just how far south we have come, and how quickly we could be in Spain, if that would be in the plan. Another sight was a continuation of yesterday, in the form of really large vineyards. Some of those today really caught our attention because they were entirely weed free. We spotted one field with a few people working, but otherwise it's a mystery as to how the pruning and maintenance is done so well. Finally, as for vineyards, there were some that were flooded. We don't think this could be good for the vines, but it was found in some fields and not adjacent ones, making us wonder what lies behind it. Grape experts out there - what do you think?

The breakfast area at La Marenne. I learned here not only something about Easter Island but also that "La Marenne" is "Hopscotch"

This style of steeple seems common in this region.

Just a few workers are ever seen actually in the fields

Much of the story of today is about bouncing from the Canal to small road to bigger road, and back and around.I checked out last year's blog for when we went through the same piece of the route, and not only was that the theme, but the information proved valuable. Also, it's comforting to see that some other cyclists had the same reaction to the things you are currently facing as you do. Of course, when those other cyclists are yourselves, the effect should be a little diluted. On the other hand, we usually find the Grampies to be reliable (and entertaining!).

We took D157 to Badens and D206 to Rustiques and Trebes. Around Trebes one of our sources seemed to say the Canal path would be ok. We tried it, and while it was not a muddy mess, it sure was not smooth sailing. We stuck with it, because we wanted to be led into Carcassone without hassle. That sort of worked. As soon as the Canal entered the vicinity of Carcassone, the path without any notice just disappeared and we got squirted out onto a busy street.

The street was double busy because it was being ripped up by construction. Again, there was not guidance of any kind as to where a cyclist could go. We followed along sort of parallel to the Canal until the public road we were on ended at a locked gate. Somewhat unbelieving, we backtracked and fought our way through another section of the construction.

Our objective just then was two bike shops that Google had identified, near each other, on the same street. We found the street and the street number of the first shop, but could see nothing that looked like it. We arrived at the second address about 12:01 p.m. Closed until 2, and we knew it would be that. But anyway the shop seemed to be focused mainly on gas motor scooters. One of the things we needed was an adjustment to our rather tricky German brakes. We had no faith these folks would be up to it, even when pumped up by their two hour lunch.

It was an easy decision not to hang around for 2 hours to find out. But now what about La Cité? That is the completely walled old town, up on a hill southeast of the modern city and the Canal. Impressive as La Cité is, Dodie has been down on its totally touristy setup. I am less hard on it, for the typical (for me) reason that I once got some good ice cream there. Ice cream did not seem enough reason to go off route and climb a hill this time, so we just pushed on. However don't despair. Just by clicking here, you can read our wonderful last year's account "Storming the Castle". And if after finding out about La Cité you read on a bit in the same page, you will get exactly the same ranting about the Canal du Midi that I am about to write here. And if you are really tough and read further on, you will land up in exactly the same darn hotel where I sit now, writing this!

We followed that street with the non bike shops (Allée d'léna) back to the Canal and scouted about for the beginning of the tow path. Over a bridge and a little to the west, we did find it. We were amazed that still within a big city the path could be allowed to be so bad!

So as quick as we could, we bailed. We found our way to D33. Readers of last year's account will see that the exact same thing happened that time.

We took the D33 to Villesequelande, bucking a headwind and trying to ignore the cars, which were more than we had expected to find here. At Villesequelande and about 2 p.m. (hey, the bike shop is open now!) we found a restaurant that somehow had not closed yet. The usual midday choice is of appetiser, main dish, and dessert or various combinations of those three at varying prices. We did not hesitate to choose all three - we were beat from wind and traffic, and hungry.

The appetiser was a really nice salad that included fried Camembert balls. The main dish was pork loin in mustard sauce, and the dessert a crepe filled with apple. We thought is was all really good, but hungry as we were maybe anything would have seemed so.

When the lady asked if I wanted coffee, I instinctively said yes. When the the teeny tiny cup arrived, Dodie laughed at me because I had once again been fooled by the French miniature cup trick. The waitress was puzzled and I explained about how a cup of coffee is so different in Canada. She replied that I could always have asked for a "double espresso allongé", which might have produced a "cup" of coffee. But that would have cost about 4 euros or $6.50 Canadian. That makes Starbucks look cheap!

The D33 continued to carry us, to Bram. This is a place originally formed in a defensive circle. We could see some of the buildings curving around, from the D33, but with traffic and wind we were just intent on getting to Castlenaudry and quitting, so we did not try to go deeper into Bram. (What useless tourists we are being today.)

Our road crossed the Canal and we peered down for a look - yup, still crap. We stuck on D33.

We othought we saw on one map that the path would improve closer to Castlenaudry. So biding our time, we eventually peeled of D33 and down to the Canal. Nope, still bad. But now we stuck (literally) on it, and eventually bumped into Castlenaudry.

Talking about where to stay in Castlenaudry, I observed that last time we had just bumped into the Hotel de France, and maybe we would again. In the town we went up and down and back and forth a bit, looking for the centre, when bop! we hit the Hotel de France. What's more, the reception clerk remembered us. What had we done here last time!

Ah yes, we rec all that Castlenaudry is cassoulet central

One thing we had done was to try the local cassoulet. Dodie likes beans and so she thought it would be good. But from beneath the beans in the baked version she tried in the restaurant, all sorts of weird items kept trying to escape from the bowl - sort of like paella in Arles.

Though cheap, the room turned out to be big and good, though the wifi is not worth a darn. I am writing this with my onesimcard.com service.

We figure tomorrow we can reach Toulouse. And Joni, if you are reading this, we booked a place right at your old haunts by St Sernin!

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 2,433 km (1,511 miles)

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