Day 67: Port Leucate to Maureillas Las Illas

October 15, 2024

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This morning we got a clearer look at Port Leucate, unaffected by our nightmare arrival last night, on the big road. The view from our room reveals villas in earth tones, with beautiful tile roofs.

Our route out took us not on the big road, but on beautiful bikeways. The air was soft, at 18°C, and there was little wind. In short the fun level had snapped from type 3 to type 1, just like that.

This Yellow Legged Gull was also enjoying the facilities.

Some villas had a little different styling. Although this is clearly a vacation development, it has probably been here long enough to call this a good example of local architecture.

The path continued good, although there was a fair amount of twiddling involved in staying on target, and the biking surface varied a little from place to place.

Sometimes there could be a glitch, such as here, where the bike path suddenly disintegrates.

The ever vigilant Dodie scored a big hit, as she spotted the relatively rare Red Squirrel. We had seen some in past weeks, but they were always fleeting glances. Dodie took my camera, since I was still not quite able to raise it, and gets 100% credit for this great shot!

We came upon a rather strange monument, in the form of three concrete pillars. This commemorates 10,000 international volunteers who came to France in 1939 and joined its army. They formed three brigades, symbolised by the three columns. I thought the soldier graphics at the base were rather strange.

Interesting building styles continued, with apartment buildings decorated by paintings. They were striking and fun.

Since leaving the Camargh, and often against our better judgement, we have been following Eurovelo 8, the Mediterranean Route. Here below is official confirmation that we really are on it.

Eurovelo wants to send us to Le Perthus, as a jumping off point for crossing the Pyrenees into Spain. But we are not going for that. Instead we will take the Col de la Manrella, further east.

Since yesterday, we have been seeing the Stone Pine everywhere. Called by us the Lollipop Pine, we usually can not remember "Stone Pine".

We will see Stone Pine all the way to (and into) Portugal.

After Canet en Roussillon, there is a large étang right by the sea. In that space there is a preserved fishing village, comprised of strange widely spaced huts. The village has been affected many times by floods from the étang. It is a preserved monument now, but we found no information about when it last was alive.

There is a nice short walk at the fishing village leading to a birding blind.

Unfortunately we only spotted one lone Oyster Catcher there today.

But there was also this lovely scene:

St Cyprien provided a chance to look at boats of different types.

We always say "Honey, where did we park the yacht" when we pass a scene like this.

This sign opens some legalistic musings, in my mind anyway. Clearly the creators of the sign do not like the dress illustrated. But what dress do they like? Also can I assume that fewer clothes would be ok?

Last year at Argeles Plage, we followed clear signage that put us in behind some kind of amusement park and then on a rough trail by a river, until finally ending at a locked gate. This year, as soon as we realized that we were in this "Grampie Trap", we backed out.

A Grampie speculatively eyes the beginning of the Trap.

No, no, we are not interested in this arrow!

Fleeing the Grampie trap was not totally easy, as someone had imported a British bike trap to help out.

But we took off the packs and squeezed through a hole!

At some point we looked up to realize that the Pyrenees had snuck up on us.

Yup, now we could begin the game of guessing where our pass might be.

We passed a bridge dedicated to Luis Companys. He had been the president of Catalunya in Spain, and fled Franco in 1939 or 1940, entering France over the pass that we will use tomorrow. He was returned to Franco by the Gestapo, and executed in Barcelona on October 15, 1940. There is a memorial ceremony up at the pass each October 15, which is today!

We arrived at our Auberge du Chene, and were nicely greeted by the owners, Greg and Aurelie . Greg immediately pulled out a package of Magura brake pads that we had had sent here from Amazon.fr It had worked well, with Amazon delivering within a week, a batch of pads at a small fraction of the local bike shop price.

Auberge du Chene is outside the town of Maureillas, and is located on the D900. That is the road to Perthus. We plan to avoid that.

Nope, not for us. Although our friends Ken and Judy tell us that there turns out to be a good bike way beside the D900.

We will go this way and then take the D13 out of Maureillas.

There is a lot of anticipation in challenging a pass, and then also ending up in Spain. A quiet night tonight, with early bedtime, and breakfast provided by Greg and Aurelie, should have us in good shape for the adventure.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 3,514 km (2,182 miles)

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