Day 48: Toulouse to Castelnaudary

October 13, 2023

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We were really bent out of shape by having missed the Black haute couture Virgin at the Basilique de la Daurade. Dodie remembered the "advice lady" yesterday saying that one had to sneak in a side door, and we had forgotten that. So despite its being a jog in the wrong direction, we resolved to return to the Daurade for another try. And once we would be wasting time, we scheduled a visit to the HSBC to see if we could extract some of our money from them (in as small of bills as possible), plus I had spotted a bike shop near the Pont Neuve, and we needed advice on the broken adjuster of Dodie's left brake handle.

That gave us a lot of reason to be hanging around Toulouse, and by now many of the streets and destinations had become familiar, so we could sit back to some extent and more fully enjoy being in such a vibrant place.

Our first sight was a troupe of very young kids heading into the downtown. I know it doesn't work this way, but I was thinking that loading in so many young kids would somehow keep the age of most people we were seeing low. Dunno, it just seems like everyone in the town is 20-30.

I know we covered the Toulouse architecture fairly well yesterday, but really, isn't the shot below great?

And look at the Pont St Pierre - so pretty!

By bike now, we arrived quickly at the Pont Neuf, easily identified by the round holes in the base. Over to the right is the Hotel Dieu, something I skipped covering yesterday and guess what, I'm skipping it again!

This brought us to the Daurade area, and were we ever kicking ourselves. We came to the spot where we had snapped some kids on tour, below in a park. To take that shot, yes, our backs had to be to the actual entrance to the Basilica. Here now it is below. Admittedly, it is not exactly giant and easy to spot.

We went Dodie in first, and as I stood with the bikes another cyclist came up and asked the way to Agen. I told him that Dodie was the expert and I guaranteed him that it would be worth waiting for her to exit the church. As expected, when she came out she showed him in his guide book exactly where he had to go. she is uncannily good at things like that!

Inside the Basilica it was not at all like a gothic church would be - narrow, with tall pointed arches, but rather it was expansively open, with Roman arches. Plus many walls were covered with huge paintings, making the place feel more like an art gallery than a church.

A closer look at the painting on the left

Roman rather than Gothic style. Actually, the present building was constructed starting in 1771 after the previous 5th century church had been destroyed in 1761. The style of the present building is given in its pamphlet as "neoclassical".

My attention now turned to the haute couture virgin. The Basilica "has long been home to one of France's historic "Black Madonnas," or "vierges noires," in fact originally representations of the goddess Isis, from ancient Egypt. Alas, the original Black Madonna was stolen in the 15th Century (before the Reformation) and its original replacement was taken out and publicly burned during the French Revolution. The one on display today dates from 1807 and is a copy of the original statue where the Virgin Mary is seated as if on a throne, holding the seated baby Jesus on one knee. Their skin color is dark as the statue is sculpted from dark wood and has been oiled and covered with candle-soot over the centuries. It has beautiful colored vestments (clothing) and is on the altar so you cannot get too close to it nowadays. Still it "emanates" energy and many people, even in the 20th Century, have had miraculous healings after visiting the site and praying for help." (from Trip Advisor)

The setting for the Madonna is very colourful and dramatic

Soem further aspects of the Basilica were also beautiful and interesting. For example, the glass:

And given the state of the Middle East today, I liked this floor mosaic.

This window shows Christ on the cross, but presumably in God's lap. Portrayal of God as a bearded man in the sky is common, but it's an obvious problem to show what the guy actually looks like. This one seems a little out of the ordinary.

Next stop was the bike shop, where I found it gratifying that the mechanic understood the two strange languages I threw at him. The first, of course, was broken French. But I had already learned some key words, like manette, for brake handle, which I had learned from another mechanic. And then there was "truc en plastique", my own invention, meaning plastic thingy. The second language was "Magura hydraulic rim brake" which concerns the mysterious workings of that Magura product. My problem, simply put, was that the plastic thingy in the brake handle, that is supposed to permit tightening the "patins" (brake pads, but ice skates to me) was for some invisible reason "kaput" (a little German for variety).

The mechanic pulled off the thingy and showed where one could tighten, using a "clef", which in this case was a #6 micro wrench. Park Tools has one, and he showed me his, but he would not sell it! Instead he direct us to what turned out to be a general store, down the way. Meanwhile we alo got some new Magura compatible brake pads. These touted themselves as both fit for ebikes and specially water handling, features that made Dodie very happy.

The shop had this Park Tool repair stand. The bikes were raised and lowered electrically with chain drive, or something!

21 euro brake pads, and the wrench we did find.

Who would have thought that this store would have the right wrench for us!

Our last stop in town was a post office, in the seemingly never ending quest for stamps. Dodie went in, leaving me an assignment - photograph those buildings. Strangely, in an active city that can be tricky. Things keep jumping in the way of the shot - cars, people, steam shovels? Here below is a not so successful try, followed by one a bit better.

Shoot high, over all the chaos, is one ploy.

We had earlier stopped to asked some police about the nearest post office, and they mentioned they were blocking the bridge because of a coming "manifestation". Dodie thought this could be a middle east related demonstration, and had me on alert to capture the action.

Actually I think it was more going to be a rugby related parade. But in any event, we had our stamps before there was any action.

We now made our way though the streets, heading for the Canal du Midi. We were a little out of downtown, and did not have the support of those thronging 20-30 year olds. So it was more cycles vs cars, knock down, drag out.

The problem was that streets had parked cars, a cycle lane, and a driving lane, but barely room for any two of those. In the photo below, in fact, there are not even any parked cars. Yet the cyclist in white stopped and reamed out the driver in the white car, correctly stating "Hey, this is a bike lane , eh!"

We did reach the canal, which runs on the other side of town from its Garonne river. Since we were still in the city, we could see combined boat and house scenes, as below.

And how about this, a bike repair boat! We were most impressed by all the (super valuable to tourists) bike boxes lying about.

But oh oh, now the towpath turned to dirt. Was this Canal du Midi up to its old dirty tricks?

No, a passerelle or so and all was fine!

Kids out in nature. This is not summer, so its not summer camp. School activity?

We think these "pompiers" were practicing with their pumps. But ladies, you can imagine they were prepping for their next calendar!

Snack time! We had grabbed this across the street from the bike shop.

We had noise all along from the E80. Why so much traffic? They are going to Barcelona, etc or coming from Marseille.

We were cruising smoothly along, and its calming just looking at the photos tonight, but wait! Dodie suddenly announced that our prepared track showed us to have gone wrong. We dutifully backtracked, and left the canal side. Soon, whaaa, our road turned to merde.

In the merde now, but look, at least they have sunflowers.

And wow, at long last we got to see the darn things getting harvested.

That was fun, but now back to the gravel.

Our track said go this way, but the sign says private road.

But wait, we found a way to climb up by that concrete structure and get on to this "great" gravel by the actual canal

See, what we have known in the past to be despicable Canal du Midi single track, contrasted with what could be new, improved gravel.

Perhaps 5 km from Castelnaudary, the trail turned paved again, and we cruised into town!

Our hotel and restaurant. We stayed here 5 years ago, when Dodie tried but did not like cassoulet. Fortunately this time it is too expensive for us. (What is cassoulet de Castelnaudary?Classic Cassoulet de Castelnaudary is a slow-simmered stew of white beans, sausage, duck confit, and pork that originated in southern France. It is considered comfort food at its finest.)

Lots of other customers, though. Castelnaudary is cassoulet central.

Our room at Maison du Cassoulet is at least clean and smells normal. But there are three glitches. One is that they want to take our bikes down those steps and into a secret dungeon. Then they say by morning they will have put down those boards, and we get to push the bikes up.

Glitch number two is that the wifi does not work, despite their insistence to the contrary. But number three! Glitch number three is that they built a great whacking, and noisy, exhaust duct from the kitchen right to our window. What are these people thinking?

Glitch #3. Am I getting too crabby in my old age?

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 2,495 km (1,549 miles)

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