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There is something I hate even more than all of the things I mentioned yesterday, and that's headwind. And today we got it all day long, in abundance, and apparently this isn't the last day. We had wind so powerful today that you had to downshift and pedal, even going downhill, and when the wind hit you from the side, it almost knocks you off your bike. Apparently, we accidentally chose to bike through France's Tornado Alley.
Ok, enough complaining.
Our AirBnB hostess left us with some fruit and a muffin the size of a cat for breakfast. Just so you know this picture isn't a trick of the camera, those are plums, not blueberries, very in scale with the size of the muffin!
We had a beautiful route today, including a series of medium climbs, long downhills, and riding along a high plateau with terrain like this all around.
I also remembered how many things you can do while sitting on your bike all day, like dry laundry!
We went through several very small towns, all of which are surrounded by fields of grapes, and have at least one wine-making operation. Here is a mural advertising one of the local wines. I think it says that the wine cured Louis XVI's gout? I'm sure Dan or Ivo will correct me on that.
Occasionally our GPS makes strange choices for bike routes. Here's one that took us down a tiny alley that was too narrow to ride on. Later in the day, it directed us onto the highway, so we had to find a semi-paved alternate route.
We stopped for lunch in one of the bigger towns, which was deserted when we get there at 11:55. Five minutes later the church bells rang noon and suddenly the town was jammed with people closing up their stores and rushing home for lunch. Even the town's one grocery is closed from 12:15 to 3 in the afternoon. It's a way of life that just hasn't changed in this part of France.
A few more picturesque moments along the way...
Our first "I'll take that please" moment
I never get tired of poppies and fields...
Or poppies and old farm equipment.
We rolled into Beziers just after 2 p.m. and checked into our rooms at Sejour a Beziers, cleaned up and hit the town. Beziers is fairly large, and the locals claim that it is the oldest town in France, so we expected that we would have a lot to see, but the highlights are the old cathedral, and Les Halles, which was closed.
Eric also went down to the river to see the pont (our long time reader will recall that ponts are one of Eric's favorite things to see on these trips) and the view up to the Old Town.
We tromped around for a while looking at retail and getting a sense of the town, and then, miraculously, it was dinner time.
We went to a restaurant recommended by our hosts, Les Louis, and had a very delicious meal in a charming medieval basement. I had the tagliatelle with salmon, and Eric did not get the duck breast! Unfortunately, we did not bring anything to take photographs with. I know, I know, it's like seeing the Abominable Snowman and not having a camera. But it's true! He did not get duck breast. He got duck leg.
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