Tag Archives: Pyrenees

Day 33 – Toulouse to Carcassonne

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105km of 2285km so far…

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

The canal within the city

One of the many locks

One of the many locks

The path by the canal

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

The place I had the puncture

pat pat pat.... for pate

pat pat pat.... for pate

One of the ports

One of the small ports

Canal crouse

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

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 old city of Carcassonne

105km of 2285km so far…

After a whole bagguette 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 enthousiastic about cycling it this morning.
Canal du Midi connects the Atlantic with the Mediterenian, 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 along, jogging, walking and having picnics.
Since I woke up, there was a complete overcast and I hardly saw the sun during the day. Todays surprise was my first punchure of the trip. After 2200 km, a piece of glass managed to go through the tyre and its inner protective layer. I stoped 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 ironicly the rain stopped just as I started riding again.
In total I cycled 50km by the canal, but unfortunately after that distance the tarmac finished, so I had to abandoned it.

The view from the hostel

The view from the hostel

Day 32 – Toulouse

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39km of 2180km so far…

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

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...

You say jump, I say how high...

The red brick dominates the city

The red brick dominates the city

In one of the squares

In one of the squares

Carousel at the center of Toulouse

Carousel at the center of Toulouse

Inside the church

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!!!

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 see a couple of the A380s on the far left

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

That's the huge hangar

That's the huge hangar

And the plane it self flying

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 would call this a primitive Computer Aided Design tool

I think that's a Computer Aided Design tool