|
Breakfast at seven, which is not very nice for Gill, but I do not want to risk missing 'my' train. Fortunately, Gill doesn't seem to mind. The groceries I bought just before closing time yesterday (fruit, fruit juice and yogurt) are not at all necessary. It is a copious meal that is laid out for me. I hope some of my own stuff (cheese) will make it till lunch time. Departure at 8 a.m. is out of the question, but some 20 minutes later I am on the road. Beautiful weather again!
View from my room
|
|
Leaving Quillan
|
Still quite good going
|
|
Along the Aude
|
|
|
Platanes
|
To the other side of the Aude
|
|
|
Part 1: The route to Carcassone: just follow the Aude for some 55 km. The first hour is still very much okay. And quick: slightly downhill and with not much wind yet. Limoux, where at 9:34 it is already 33° C, is UGLY, and after Limoux the D118 gets more and more the appearance of a motor way. Not in the least during the sections with separate lanes. Shortly before Cépie it does become a motor way indeed, and cyclists are led through the village mentioned. For a moment I am afraid that when this by-road will come back to the D118, I will have a problem, but an oncoming cyclist reassures me in this. However, having experienced the pleasure of a quieter road (and noticing I have ample time to get to Carcassonne Gare SNCF) I leave the main road at the earliest opportunity, which comes soon with the exit to Pomas. And it is fun (less flat too) until I return to the D118 via the Pont Garigliano. And that is the end of the fun of the morning part. I had expected a nice old city wall, but instead it is just a long way with traffic light after traffic light and much traffic. Halfway Carcassone I insert a coffee break at a boulangerie/pâtisserie with good pastry, okay coffee, and a small terrace. Without having to ask (nor consulting my phone, which I never do on the way) I find the (correct!) station, with a strange circling around it at the end. There is one heavily loaded bike parked in front of it, and I am a bit afraid of the capacity of the train .... I buy my ticket and pay some extra to have a 'guaranteed' (?) place. And have enough time to finally buy my 'Pyrenees t-shirt', in which again I do not succeed. Back in the station the warmth makes it extra hard to carry my bike down and up the steep staircases to the correct platform.
Quite a crowded platform! And the train that arrives after ten minutes is startlingly short! And quite full ... at the first door I try the conductress shakes her head: 'No way'. At the second, the third, the fourth entrance it is again absolutely impossible to get in with my bike. My last resort, the foremost entrance .... well, if people move on a bit, it could work. Luckily they do. Ouch! The train is SO crowded, and many people have such large suitcases; the final destination is Perpignan, and probably there is also a stop at Perpignan Airport. I am glad I can change trains in Narbonne (after a 40 minutes' ride). And there again: what a crowded platform! However, most people are not on their way to Avignon, and I find me a comfortable (though not official) place for my bike. Pfew!
Carcassone station
|
|
Platform at gare Avignon
|
Part 2:
Around 15:20 I get off at warm Avignon (definitely warmer than Limoux), and there the station is equipped with an elevator, however, with a queue of at least six people with bikes waiting. So this last steeple/staircase I can handle as well ('Downstairs' I see a cyclist coming out of the elevator and notice that my bike would only have fit in vertically). Avignon is busy with people, the festival, traffic. And a long way/many traffic lights to get out at the other (= east) end. When I finally am out of the city, I phone to tonight's hosts to confirm that indeed I will make it to their place today (I had booked with the proviso that the train part would go as planned), and at the same point change back to cycling shorts and make a photograph of tomorrow's project. I have thought about a small detour via Velleron, and then through the forest (and over a hill) to Saint Didier, but I get severely lost in Velleron (and a lady walking a dog cannot help me out, not even with Google Maps). So – partly over a cycling route – I ride via Pernes-les-Fontaines to Saint-Didier, and then enter Carpentras via the D4, named 'Avenue du Comtat Venaissin', where – between two apartment buildings – I find the entrance to the comfortable house of John and Stephanie (if I remember their names well), Friends on a Bicycle (or rather: Vrienden op de Fiets). I am very warmly welcomed with a cold beer and four interested ears (and a curious cat). Compared to the Chambre d'Hôte in Quillan this place is really chaleureux.
Tomorrow's Project
|
|
Arrivé à la destination
|
Dinner is super too, both as for the food, as for the talks we have. Looking back, the best addresses of this trip were definitely the first and the last.
|
