After a whole baguette with nutella for breakfast, I packed my bike and joined the Canal du Midi from within the city. I was hearing a lot about this canal for a long time during my trip, so I was very enthusiastic about cycling it this morning.
Canal du Midi connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, going through many cities and villages. Along the canal for the majority of its length, there is a path for bicycles and pedestrians, so for about 20km from Toulouse, I was seeing many people cycling, jogging, walking and having picnics.

The canal within the city

One of the many locks

The path by the canal

Since I woke up, there was a complete overcast and I hardly saw the sun during the day. Todays surprise was my first puncture of the trip. After 2200 km, a piece of glass managed to go through the tire and its inner protective layer. I stopped at the side of one of the canal’s lock to have a look and of course half way the repair it started raining. It rained a lot and I had to put my water proofs and ironically the rain stopped just as I started riding again.

The place I had the puncture

pat pat pat.... for pate

One of the small ports

Canal crouse

In total I cycled 50km by the canal, but unfortunately after that distance the tarmac finished, so I had to abandoned it. Cycling on the road and with a nice tail wind I was going faster and I knew I could make it to Carcassonne. On the way I passed through the nice city of Castelnaudary, full of old houses and churches.

Castelnaudary

Luckily I made it to Carcassonne the minute before the tourist information was closing, so I managed to get the information I wanted. As it was wet all day, I was considering the option to stay in a hostel again and after I realized where the hostel is located I decided to stay there and also take the next day off to visit the city.

The old city of Carcassonne

The view from the hostel

Day off again today, with a busy program to see and visit places in the city of Toulouse. Lucky enough, specifically during this weekend, around 50 places in the city were free to get in. I had made my list from the day before, so after a good night sleep and a good breakfast in the hostel, I was on the road at around 10am.  My first visit was at the old observatory of Toulouse. There was a photographic exhibition of the construction of observatory up in the peak of Midi at 2887 meters, not far from the col du Tourmalet. Unfortunately they didn’t let me in to the domes, as they would open to the public after midday to observe the sun. One way or another, it was a full overcast, so I doubt the public saw any sun today.

One of the many domes of the observatory

I headed south-west to the town center to walk around the plazas. It was Saturday, the stores were open so the city was very lively, with open markets and happenings.

You say jump, I say how high...

The red brick dominates the city

In one of the squares

Carousel at the center of Toulouse

Inside a church I visited

I then went back to the modern art museum. The main floor was being redone for a new exhibition, but there was another floor that I didn’t visit yesterday as I wanted to take advantage of today’s free entry. It’s been more than a month now, since London, that I haven’t been to an exhibition, so even if it was rather small I really enjoyed it.

ART!!!

I had the typical lunch sandwich and then started making my way to the airport! Don’t worry I am not giving up yet. Toulouse apart from cassoulet, is also famous for its planes. They call them AIRBUS and in Toulouse you will find the main assembly facility. It was rather difficult to get there on a bike, as most airports are not bike friendly. I got lost, I started asking people how to get there, they kept saying they didn’t know without a car and of course it started raining. In the end I did get there on time and I paid €14 for a tour of the A380 hangar in French. We visited the telemetry room, which is a room that gathers thousands of parameters during the test flights and we saw in replay the very first flight test of the fully double decker A380. Later we visited the viewing platform of the hangar where they assembly the planes. There are three of them in there at any time, which means the hangar is very big. Unfortunately they didn’t allow cameras, so you will have to believe me.

You can almost see a couple of the A380s on the far left

That's the huge hangar

And the plane it self taking off

On the way back to the city, I visited a last place, the Aerotheque, which is a civil airplane museum. It had big models of all the AIRBUS series along with many other artifacts.

I think that's a Computer Aided Design tool

I woke up and I had a good breakfast waiting for me, with tea croissants and home made marmalade. Packed my bike, said goodbye and thank you and headed for Toulouse.

Rennes and me before I left for Toulouse

Toulouse wasn’t far away at all. A little more than 10 km, so I took it easy and got there at about 11am. I knew it was going to rain today, so I was debating whether I should look for a hostel and be closer to the center. At the tourist office they told me there isn’t any camp site, so that solved my problem. It took me some time and frustration in the rain to find it, because the word hostel doesn’t exist in French. I am a little curious to see how much better, or not, I will sleep on a bed, after spending a month sleeping in my tent. The hostel it self is good enough and very cheap plus free wifi.

After I checked in, I did a massive laundry and I took some time to look after my bike. It’s been a few days now and especially after Pyrenees, that I wanted to swap the front to back tires, as the back one wears off faster because of the weight. After visiting the local outdoors shop to fully pump up the tires and buy a few extra things, I was ready to go around the city.

I randomly wondered around the alleys, I crossed the bridges a couple of times had a snack. The city is big enough and even has a metro system. The most fascinating thing though are the bikes. Toulouse like many other big French cities, have public bikes to go around. With 5euros per week, you can ride a bike for half an hour for free and then each hour is about a euro or something. Very good system I believe and I saw many people using it. Most of the big buildings are made of bricks, apparently because there aren’t any quarries close enough. Bridges, churches, town hall and museums are all red.

Reloading the public bikes

Painting on a store

La Garonne

The river from the other side

After a little bit of walking I ended up in the Modern art Museum. Most of it is being renovated at the moment, so nothing special apart from the big permanent exhibits outiside.

The entrance of the museum

The cafe of the museum

Les Abattoirs

Espace d'Art Moderner Contemporain

Then it started raining again. I got soaked and started making my way back to the hostel, graving for some pizza to eat. Luckily I realized there is a very good and cheap restaurant at the hostel, so with only €9 I had a full mean with salad, desert and drink.

Time for sleep now on a soft bed!

It’s been a month now that I am in France and many people told me I should try cassoulet when I get to the south. I had it once in London but of course it would not be the same.

I started making my way to Toulouse early in the morning. I chose to make a small diversion so to join a prettier road. Unfortunately for my legs it had loads of up and downs, but that was the trade off for the scenery I was cycling within.

After about 50km, I stopped at Rieumes for some lunch and rest. After I had a pizza I noticed a cafe with wifi and since I was only 30km from Toulouse I thought I should use the opportunity. The people inside seemed very friendly and kept laughing with my french accent. As I was getting my bike to depart, some of the clients started asking me questions so I told them my story about cycling back home. Then I asked them for a campsite in Toulouse and that’s when the surprise of the day appeared. One of the ladies offered me to go to her place in Plaisance du touch, which is only 10km from Toulouse and pitch my tent in her garder. I could turn down such an offer, so we arrange to meet in the supermarket of the town. I later found out that her son used to do a lot of cycle touring so she knew what I was into. The accommodation, apart from a shower, wifi and a thicker matrice for my tent, also included a 3 course meal that we had along with her friends and a hefty breakfast with home made marmalade. I was glad I had a spare bottle of Bordeaux red wine with me to thank her for treating me like son.

]]> http://blog.ch3.gr/day-30/feed/ 2 http://blog.ch3.gr/day-29/ http://blog.ch3.gr/day-29/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:46:10 +0000 Georgios http://blog.ch3.gr/?p=579 68km of 2034km so far…

After yesterday’s col, the wet and the cold night, I woke up and started my day late. On top of that I went to the town center to buy and do a few things, so I was on the road at mid day. I wasn’t feeling fully recovered, so along the day I was cycling rather slowly.
I was heading to Toulouse, but it was too far to get there on the day, especially with such a late start. On top of that, I thought I was done with the hills, but still I ended up going up and down a couple of hundreds meters several times.

My first stop for a quick lunch was at the castle of Mauvezin, which is located on the top of the village’s hill, overlooking a vast area of land and the Pyrenees at the far south. The weather was once again warm, which I really appreciated after the last three cold days on the mountains, so I spend a good half an hour by the castle to enjoy the sun and have a snack.

Moving on, I did a short diversion to join one of the smaller roads which was indicated with a green outline on the map. That was the part of the day’s ride I enjoyed the most. About 20 kilometers of downhill, small and quite roads, which I rode effortlessly, within beautiful forests and small surrounding hills.

Soon enough I got to Boulogne sur Gesse, which is a small town with a campsite and all the commodities I needed to spend the night and so I did. I cooked some food and had a beer by the tent to celebrate.

]]> http://blog.ch3.gr/day-29/feed/ 4 http://blog.ch3.gr/day-28/ http://blog.ch3.gr/day-28/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:02:25 +0000 Georgios http://blog.ch3.gr/?p=557 54km of 1966km so far…

Another day, another col!
As the weather forecast wasn’t good for the afternoon, I woke up early and I was on the road by 9. Philip and Julia were going to the same col with me, but we departed separately as it is easier to go up on your own tempo.

Today’s col was Tourmalet at 2115 meters over an 18km ride. When I saw the first sign, I hadn’t even done 3km from the campsite, which means my legs were not warm enough. Today it was a lot colder and even at the base the temperature was around 11c and extremely humid. A few kilometers later and I could see my breath and my back steaming.

The scenery was once again breathtaking. There wasn’t much forest this time, but loads of grass and a lot of running water. The area was populated with cows, sheep, horses as well as eagles flying above the valley.

Once again, I saw many cyclists on the way and I ended up doing the last 5 kilometers of the climb along with two Spanish women. Their mothers were escorting them with a car to film their attempt and support them. They later told me it was their third time on this col and this time they were doing the entire Pyrenees from coast to coast in ten days!
The temperature droped to 5 degrees, my camera and speedometer were complaining for low battery because of the low temperature and I had to stop and put my jacket for the last few kilometers. This time the road was next to steaper cliffs without any barriers, so a few times I cycled on the opposite direction to avoid an accidental jump to the void.

I made it to the top and some other cyclists congratulated me. Everyone up there was treated as a winner. I took my photos, took more clothes and jumped into the refuge restaurant for warmth and food. Once again it was full of cyclists. I talked to one of them and I found out they were a groupf of six friends cycling the entire Pyrenees in 7 days, raising money for cancer research, as the leader had recently lost his father.

This time the descent was even harder. With a pair gloves under my mitts and plastic gloves underneath, my fingers were still frozen and barely able to press the breaks. I stopped to the first ski resort to use the toilet’s hand dryer to warm my self up before I continue with the descent. I wonder how most of the cyclists that make it up there, wear such a minimal clothing and most of them would go for a second col right after.

At the village Campan I saw this very interesting custom. Every single house and store had one or several dolls in various poses. I found it very interesting and funny.

When I got to the village of Saint Marie de Campan, I had the choice of going south west to the col d’Aspin. But I think I took my little taste of climbing mountains and it was time to head to warmer grounds. I was about to go to Tarbes, but the tourist office told me there aren’t any campsites, so I stayed at Bagneres de Bigorre for the night.

]]> http://blog.ch3.gr/day-28/feed/ 1 http://blog.ch3.gr/day-27/ http://blog.ch3.gr/day-27/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:41:30 +0000 Georgios http://blog.ch3.gr/?p=541 71km of 1911km so far…
Today I cycled to the clouds! Col Aubisque is at 1709m and col du Soulor at 1474m.
The day started earlier than normal as I was woken up by a friend’s message. I took the opportunity for an early start, as I knew I had a big challenge in front of me. After I packed my stuff, I took a few minutes to admire the suroundings of the campsite as the sun was coming out.

The view from my tent

The drunken's house

I had my triple breakfast and started my way to the beggining of the col which was just a couple of kilometers away from the village.

Col d'Aubisque welcome sign

The climb was 16km from the base and took me a little more than 2 hours. As usual every kilometer there was a sign for the remaining distance, the altitude and the average gradient at that kilometer. Bit by bit I was gaining altitude and the scenery was gradually changing. Half way through the clouds had completely covered the sky and the tops were on and off inside them. Most of the route was within a wild forests, with rivers, small waterfalls and pleanty of streams that got smaller and smaller as I was getting higher.

Cycling within the clouds

Sheep at high altitude

Above 1500 meters, it was a completely different world. The temperature was keep dropping and for periods of time I was cycling withing dense clouds. On the way I saw dozens of cyclists going up and down and everyone was encouraging each other. I finally made it to the top and I was completely soaked by the sweat and the humidity. When I stoped cycling, I started getting cooler and cooler very fast and by the time I took a couple of photos, I started freezing. Luckily there was a refuge/restaurant just at the side with about 20 bikes parked outside and seemed reasonable to go in. There I had a plate of warm food by the fireplace.

I came from the right and heading to the left

The bicycles of the giants

My award!

In the refuge, I met a swiss couple that were also touring. Michi ans Silvia had already done about 10 cols in Pyrenees and the Alps. They’ve taken a year off work and after Europe they are flying to south America to cycle around the continent.

The wall of fame

When I managed to get some warmth and calories, I put my waterproofs to stop the chill and started making my way down to the other side. The decent didn’t require much effort, but apart from being dangerous, I didn’t want to go above 30km/h as the cold air was becoming unbearable. There were times I was breaking and peddaling at the same time, to keep my legs moving.

Going down again.

One for the several rivers

The next col of the day

I went down about 500 meters, I started ascending again to the next col du Soulor. I didn’t stay there long and I continued my descent. On the way down it was easier to admire the scenery and stop for photos. After the fast descent of 20 kilometers, I stopped at Argeles Gazost to see what my options are. In the tourist office, I met another touring couple that I had already seen at the col and as they were heading at the same direction with me, we ended up cycling together to Luz Saint Sauveur and checking into the same camp site. Philip and Julia are spending a week cycling around Pyrenees and they will do as many cols as they have time for.

Philip and Julia leading the way

Hi, my name is cool!