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WEATHER: CLOUDY, THEN SUNNY, THEN HEAVY RAIN

Rain was predicted today, so we were quite pleased when the clouds in the early morning turned to sunshine after breakfast. Breakfast was very good again and everyone appreciated the pistachio-cherry cake. More conversation in French with our hostess, Celine, and the couple from Cognac. After breakfast we walked back to the fancy bakery through the market day crowds and got three chausons aux pommes for the trip. As we were leaving with our bikes, the folks from Cognac came to see us off and gave us a small sample bottle of their organic cognac to take along.

We kept our shorts handy since it looked like it would get hot again today, but it was not to be. We retraced our route up the hill and to the outskirts of Argeles-Plage and on to Argeles-sur-Mer. It was clouding over and the clouds were starting to get thick. Hmm. We left that town by a much smaller road and hadn't gone more than about three km when it started to rain hard. Suddenly. We stopped under a tree to put on our booties and rain jackets. After that it rained harder and harder. We carried on to Saint Genis-des-Fontaines and shortly afterwards we saw a boy scout troop in shorts and shortsleeved shirts resolutely marching along the other side of the road in the pelting rain.

Soon we arrived at the recently constructed TGV line (constructed since the Google Earth images that Al was using for route finding). We thought we'd have to cross the road which had turned into a divided highway with concrete barriers, but there was a nice newly built small road (almost a bike path) that went neatly under the divided highway just when we needed it to approach Le Boulou. We hoped to find a place to eat lunch here even though it was Sunday, and sure enough a small bar/restaurant, Bistro Glacier, was open. We had a delicious lunch: chicken with several kinds of mushrooms in a good sauce, a cauliflower timbale and potatoes baked with mushrooms; for dessert strawberry ice cream for Al and a crepe with chocolate sauce for Eva.

The rain let up while we were eating, but started again with full force for the last 12 km to Ceret. We cycled the last bit along quite a busy highway with water flying everywhere from the cars going by us. There was a smaller road parallel to the highway for part of the way, but it was so covered with puddles that we couldn't tell what the pavement was like. We pulled into the Hotel des Arcades in the centre of the picturesque old town of Ceret, parked our bikes in the garage, and took hot showers, very relieved to get out of the dripping wet.

We decided to go out through the rain with our umbrellas to explore a bit, but it really was too wet and we took refuge in the Museum of Modern Art, which we had planned to visit. It was 5 o'clock and the museum closed at 6. The installations were not impressive, and after a few minutes it became obvious to Al that his stomach was extremely unsettled, so we went back to the hotel forthwith.

Soon after we got back to our room, his nice lunch from Le Boulou all came up and he felt pretty awful. In fact he just lay down and eventually went to sleep until the next morning. He couldn't imagine eating anything and Eva wasn't hungry either, although her stomach was fine. We both wondered whether Al would be up to cycling the next day.