Day 22- Cadouin to Cahors - 78 kms

4 Jul

Today was the last day of my ride in France and Chris has another 3.5 weeks to go

We were both awake at 6 am and the morning was fresh and cool despite being very humid so we decided on an early start with breakfast to be purchased along the way

We had a little bit of difficulty in finding our way out of the town ....

Shortly after this we had the most horrendous route along an overgrown lane way that had to be walked with our bikes rather than riding them....this was probably only one of about three occasions where this had occurred on the bike navigation system we were using....quite remarkable really when you think about it after all the roads we have been on over the past few weeks

Them we had the “mother of. Climb “ for about 1.5 kms where the gradient was over 20 pc in some parts

We later discovered that we could have taken another road which went around the hill we climbed !!!

Lesson learned for later in the day....

The first stop for breakfast was at Belves which is a pretty town at the top of a hill!!!!..and after a 5 km climb of gradients of around 5pc so getting to the top to have some croissants was certainly a well earned reward

After breakfast we had a good decent followed by many ups and downs with the ups being more than the downs.....

The next stop was Casals for a snack which consisted of a soft drink and a Paris Brest for me... Chris had a strawberry tart.... the 2 seemed to go together well somehow!

Anyway after the snack we decided that the cycle tour route was going to deliver some tough climbs so we followed a few of the more major roads for a change which were:

- less hilly

- offered a slightly shorter route

- and were not all that busy

The result was that we made good time to Cahors and were at the train station by about 12.30 with a train leaving at 1.15pm

The weather was getting quite hot so rather than go down town , we booked tickets on the train and had lunch at the train station cafe

The train arrived and left on time and we enjoyed a good rest for about 1.5 hours on the train. We struck up a conversation with a couple of guys who were heading home to Niort and Paris after a ride in the wine country for a few days... they gave up because of the heat!

Arriving in Toulouse we then started looking for youth hostel accommodation only to find the place was closed. Our next option was an apartment hotel next door but it was full.

So on to the net with booking dot com and we found an apartment hotel that looked okay but was on the other side of the river!

So Chris guided us to the place with about 15 kms of riding through the heart of Toulouse with people everywhere!

Finally we arrived at the hotel only to find that they had 2 locations and we were at the wrong one!!

Let’s say we were not all that happy.....

On the bikes again and off for the 5 km ride to the other hotel...

Yes finally arriving they had our booking and we could finally have a drink and a shower after a big day

I will reflect upon the ride either tomorrow or on the plane home but initial reaction to the trip is that it has been fantastic despite the problem of Chris’s bike being stolen

Chris has been a great pal on the trip and in many respects we compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses

We have covered a lot of France and seen a lot of country and met a lot of very fine French people who have been more than helpful and hospitable to us

It is sad the trip has finally finished for me

Early morning fog over the valley...(sorry about the wire)