Cahors

292 miles today but it feels as though I travelled much further. I left Cadaqués in glorious sunshine and by 09:30 when I got onto the autoroute headed for Narbonne, the temperature was 25 degrees. The ride to Narbonne was a tremendous battle with an extremely strong sidewind blowing west to east that had me using most of a lane as I was battered back and forth across it as gusts hit me. I was very glad then to leave the autorute and head into the hills which protected me somewhat from the blast which also diminished in strength as I rode north west. Unfortunately, a few miles from Narbonne and the sunny weather had completely disappeared to be replaced by low cloud.

I soon found myself in thick cloud/mist, navigating greasy hairpin bends and with my visor constantly being covered inside and out by the wretched mist, it was not easy riding. All the splendid views that the route should have provided were completely invisible.  I was heading for a little town called Ambialet which I had seen in photographs and it had looked very picturesque as it is located in a hairpin bend of the Tarn river which when seen from above is a tremendous sight. Unfortunately, I could hardly make out the sign for the viewpoint, let alone the view but I descended the gorge into the village for a bite to eat and a hot drink.

I stopped at a little café where they were busy mopping the terrace where rain had left huge puddles.  They seemed surprised to see a customer and were somewhat taken aback when I requested food but they provided me with a nice quiche and a salad willingly enough. The half dozen people or so were the owner, his wife and a few friends and when, inevitably, I mentioned that I was disappointed not to have seen the view, they looked very glum and  told me they had only had a couple of days of sun in the last 6 weeks. It was hurting business, the crops and they were understandably very fed up. Still they were quite charming to me and offered all sorts of suggestions of places where I might go to find the sun. Unfortunately, they were all around the coast of the Mediterranean,  so not really a lot of use to me on the way to England.

I dropped out of the hills as soon as I was able and after humming and haa-ing, I headed for Cahors in weather that improved considerably, to the extent of offering a couple of sunny periods. I found a pretty decent hotel called the Terminus and appropriately, near the railway station. The hotel is not much to look at but the room is clean and comfortable enough, I was able put the bike in a lock up garage and it turned out that the restaurant is truly excellent.

I got some reasonable headcam footage leaving Cadaqués, my last sight of the Pyrenees (sob..) but that will have to wait for a faster wifi link than I have here; so just one photo today, of a little place called Lisle sur Tarn.