Day 7 - Friday 3 May, Montpelier to Carcassonne

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day when we woke up in Montpelier. Sid and Lottie laid on a lovely continental breakfast, to which we did more than ample justice. Then it was time to get the bike gear back on, pose for photos with Sid and Lottie, thank them for their hospitality and set off again.

Sid and Lottie with Badger and Eddy

Badger was heading off to meet up with his rugby club - Cuffley - on tour in Lloret de Mar, which Eddy and I had decided to pass on. Instead we were going to Carcassonne then meeting up with Badger in Lleida on Sunday. We headed down the costal route to Sète avoiding the motorway, but we couldn't avoid the wind - a really stiff breeze was blowing onto the sea and we were leant over to stay straight. At a roundabout I asked Eddy if he had a tip for this situation. "Hold on really tight to the bars" was his reply.

At Sète we turned inland towards Béziers onto really tight little roads with tiny roundabouts every kilometre or so. The traffic was really heavy and progress, even on the bikes, was frustratingly slow. Just as we got onto decent roads on the outskirts of Béziers, Eddy and Badger spotted a nice little canal-side cafe so we stopped for a couple and route-planning session before we went out separated ways.

Badger Planning his Route to Lloret de Mar

Posing with the Bike before Parting at Béziers

After coffee, ice lollies and much discussion Badger set off for Spain, whilst Eddy and I headed west for Carcassonne, which I've never been to, but always wanted to see. The quality of the roads was definitely getting better as we headed up into the hills and vineyards around St Chinion. Eddy and I found a rather nice truck stop place for lunch. After lunch we soon found ourselves high up in the Parc Naturel Regional de Haute Languedoc headed for Castres before turning left for Carcassonne.

We were soon very much on our own in the mountains. The roads got gradually narrower and twistier as we climbed up bend after bend. I wouldn't have liked to have had an accident there as you might wait a long time for help to come by and I doubt whether you would have got a mobile signal. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only 40 minutes we finally started descending heavily forested slopes. The air was definitely a lot cooler up here and the roads were wet from a recent cloud burst that we must have just missed. The beech trees were in full blossom and the rain had covered the roads in a fine layer of beech-mast, which we kept a very careful eye on as it can turn the road surface into a slippery might-mare. In the event the descent was incident-free but very demanding. Really steep slopes culminating in tight 1st gear bends that required plenty of braking. Fortunately there was virtually zero traffic on the roads so we could use the full width of the road, but even so it was really had work and we stopped at the first town we came into for a rest.

Once we got down off the mountains, the ride into Carcassonne was a breeze. Finding the Tourist Office and a hotel was not however and we were starting to get more than a bit hot and bothered before we found a very modern Ibis, at least they had free secure parking for the bikes. This turned out to be a less than inspired choice - the hotel was on the market square and very noisy. After a shower and change we headed across the bridge into the much quieter old town and climbed up to the medieval town. This was amazing - but very popular. The medieval walls and streets have been incredibly preserved but the whole place is given over to tourism. It felt very similar to Rhodes both in scale and atmosphere. to

I was on strict instructions from Claire to "take lots of pictures" so I did. You can see all the pictures from this trip on my facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/mike.dennison.716. We had a very refreshing beer at a bar and then had a decent cassoulet at a tourist restaurant then back for a reasonably early night - Andorra and Spain tomorrow!