I spent a full day resting at La Grand Chaume and the following morning I started early for a very long ride south. I was heading to a small vilage near Carcassonne and the distance was 500 kilometres, on rather small roads. It was extremely hot and I had to make many stops during the day. I had to soak my jacket in water continuously to not get overheated. This is a trick I learnt in Australia when riding there in 2005, “you might feel stupid when soaking your jacket, but not nearly as stupid as you will feel when falling off your bike because of heat stroke” as my Aussie friend Jennifer said.
I also had to use both Coca-Cola and dextrosol to keep up the concentration but it was a beautiful ride. The landscape was changing as I rode south, some bits were on quite a high altitude, it was green fields that later changed for more brown fields and later forest. I passed so many pretty villages and if I ever move to France I have plenty of places to choose from. I almost regretted my plan due to low energy at the end but the hostel didn’t disappoint me. It was a lovely place next to a castle and it had a bar where the locals had a beer in the evening or a coffee in the morning which gave it a nice atmosphere. I was able to park my bike on the castle ground to keep it out of sight, the owner insisted. Very nice of her, not that I can understand what could happened in this tiny village that can’t in Madrid 🙂 Nevertheless, I always appreciate the concern about my bike.
Now I’m in Andorra, short ride today and an afternoon of shopping where I totally failed to buy riding trousers.
