Calais to Carcassonne

I recently joined Bikeadventures for their Calais to Carcassonne ride. Two weeks, 13 and a half days riding averaging 65 miles and 3000 feet of climbing a day ( 884 miles total) . So a typical A ride every day with one rest day.  There were 18 of us with 12 in hotels and 6 camping. Two tandems, 3 Australians, one American, one Belgian with ages from about 48 to 76 and the 20 year old grandson of the 76 year old - a good and sociable group. When it came to riding there was a loose A group of 5-9 riders who typically rode together of which I was part and the others more spread out behind.

The route was fairly rolling at first and very attractive countryside through Wimeraux, Abbeville, Gisors and Epernon becoming flatter as we went south. Epernon to the Loire at Beaugency was very flat prairie country but with a strong tail wind we were riding at 20mph+ for a lot of the day. Beaugency is a lovely town so it was good to have time to enjoy it. Another flat and hot day south of the Loire to Vierzon but then gently climbing to Le Chatre and quite a lumpy day to Aubusson, our rest stop. Not much to do here on a damp day except the weaving museums but those who went for a ride got predictably soaked.

From Aubusson it’s high sheep and forest country to Neuvic and then the big day over the Pas de Peyrol. The start was wet and downhill to cross the Dordogne, then up for 7 miles to Mauriac only to lose most of it before the long gentle pull up the Vallee du Mars. The tough bit was after lunch – about 3 miles at 5-6% before hitting the big hill where most of the last mile and a half is 15% to the summit at 1589 metres. Unfortunately we were in the cloud so no views of the nearby Puy Mary. Then coffee, cake and 25 miles downhill to Aurillac. Two more lumpy days followed as we headed south to Villefranche de Rouergue ( a beautiful medieval town) and Castres across all the rivers flowing west – Cere, Lot, Aveyron, Tarn – not to mention several tributaries, usually involving several  miles of climbing with some glorious descents to compensate. By now the sun was out and we were clearly in the Midi. Or so we thought until the rain set in just after leaving Castres to climb over the Black Mountains to Narbonne. Billed as a spectacular day it was the only really heavy rain of the trip but cleared to sunshine as we dropped to the vineyards of Minervois.

The final day exposed the flaw in the concept. Billed as Calais to Carcassonne the trip is also supposed to be Channel to Med. An earlier bad experience in rain with the cycle path to Port la Nouvelle has resulted in the route  (but not the marketing) being rewritten to just visit one of the lagoons near Narbonne and then head west. Six of us agreed that a pond is not the Med and so went there anyway (by road not the path, and with the encouragement of the leaders) adding 18 miles to the final day. Normally not a great challenge but with the Tramontaine wind blowing at 20mph and 40mph gusts we left ourselves 50 miles heading straight into it. Hard, thirsty work on a hot day but we felt very satisfied at the end.

Hotels were mostly good 2/3* with only one, in Abbeville that was really rather tired. Our numbers were a challenge to the rural (and even sometimes urban) French economy where the 35 hour week and flagging trade seems to mean that fewer cafes and restaurants were open than last year - especially on Mondays. On a few occasions we ran establishments out of food as they were unprepared for more than a handful of clients, and one lunchtime the plat de jour changed three times as successive versions were consumed.

Overall a very enjoyable trip. Most days we were finished by 4pm so time enjoy the towns we stayed in some of which were well worth visiting. Little rain though not as much sun as we would have liked in the middle of the trip (the weekend of Ged’s rather cool visit to the Pyrenees).  We wished we had seen more of the leaders socially in the evenings but they were too occupied with the campsite. However it seems this may have been the last trip with split accommodation.