Montauban to Lavaur

October 26, 2010

WEATHER: SUNNY AND COOL

After another breakfast at the beautifully appointed table (different china today) we took our leave and headed up the Tarn River towards Lavaur. The road was busy off and on and bumpy for about 3 km until we crossed over an autoroute and turned onto a very small road through fields, including ones with netted apple trees. We stopped to take a photo of the apples, and Al discovered that a bolt had come out of his rack at the bottom and the rack had settled onto the hub and was cutting a groove in it. Luckily he found a bolt purchased on last year's trip (in Loches) and put it in for a temporary fix (which turned out to be a permanent one for the trip). Bit of a close call-it's a good thing we stopped by chance at that point.

After a stretch of rough road surface, we discovered that a rack bolt had fallen out when we stopped by a netted apple orchard.

We went through several small villages strung out along the Tarn and stopped for lunch at Villemur-sur-Tarn at the only bar/restaurant we could find. The entree was a big slab of ham, the plat a huge piece of lasagne, with apple tarte for dessert; 11 euros including wine.

After lunch we stayed on the north side of the river and finally crossed it on a little picturesque bridge in a small town. Then we cut across country on a very complicated route to Lavaur, skirting south of St. Suplice. Al's route finding went without a hitch, even in this circuitous maze where we had to keep close track of the tenths of kilometres so we knew which tiny roads to take. (We don't use GPS.)

We found our hotel, Les Pasteliers, settled in, and then walked around town to the imposing red brick church and a park overlooking the river. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was a buffet of salads for the entree, then filet of morue (cod), and for dessert chocolate fondant for Eva and a whole pear in red wine for Al. ½ bottle of Cahors red finished off the meal.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 496 km (308 miles)

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