Vaucluse Dreamer

Yesterday evening was a bit of a blur, after the mad dash into Carcassonne to try to beat the storm. We were a bit drained, both physically and emotionally, so simply dashed out to the supermarket, between the storms and bought bits for supper, and hunkered down in the apartment, whilst the next storm raged outside….

The big decision we made was to not push on and do another big ride today, which had been our original plan. We had decided to have another rest day at Pezenas, which is a beautiful little town, filled with brocante shops and artisan shops and had been thinking that we would ride straight there from Carcassonne, but for once common sense prevailed and we decided that it would be much better to do it over 2 days, and just enjoy the shorter rides

When we were chatting about it, we felt that cycling along the canal had given us a bit of a motorway mentality, just needing to get somewhere and move on again. Whilst we needed to do it, because of the weather warnings, it really isn’t our sort of cycling, and certainly wasn’t what this trip is all about.

What we love most is finding our way along quiet backroads, avoiding anything bigger than a ‘yellow road’ on the map. We love to see the country, feel the rises and falls of the landscape, hear the birdsong and smell the scent of pine or honeysuckle in the air. We like to stop, when we want to stop and simply just enjoy the process of moving between places on two wheels. For us both, it’s the getting somewhere part that we enjoy, even more than the actual being there.

We both felt that what was important was to get back to just that, keeping an eye on the weather warnings and working our days around them. So today, we planned a shorter ride, setting a route that would take us through little villages on our way towards Pezenas, but stopping a little bit over half way, at the small town of Capestang, for the night.

Having made that decision, it felt as if a weight had been lifted and we both felt the stress and worries of the last few days slip from our shoulders, allowing ourselves the luxury of a slower morning, even walking into Carcassonne for breakfast in a café, before packing up and moving on again.

To begin the day, we headed back down onto The Canal Du Midi, just for the first few kilometres into Trebes. I know what I said about canal trails, but after yesterday’s dice with death on main roads to get into the city, I was more than happy just to suck up another 11km on a canal-side trail, just to make sure we got out of the city without any further worries

If I’m honest, this was the worst section of the trail that we have ridden, with bumpy, stony sections and some quite muddy parts after last night’s storms. In places it was quite narrow, with high plants on either side, which whipped against us as we made our way through, but we kept pottering on, finally joining a quiet road for the last few hundred metres into the pretty little canal-side town of Trebes.

Here, we waved a happy goodbye to the canal path and got back to doing what we love most, taking a quiet road that climbed gently out of the village, to start making our way across country towards Capestang.

The moment we turned off, our grins widened as we started pedalling up the road through trees and open farmland, with views opening up in front of us.

The road took us up onto a ridge, where the trees disappeared and vineyards started to take their place, as we passed a sign saying that we were on the Minervois Wine Route.

We had visited this area a few times, when the boys were young, but had stuck to the canal path (as it was flat) and some small roads near to it, but hadn’t explored further afield, and almost immediately wished that we had.

The area is spectacularly beautiful, with quiet rolling roads through a wonderful landscape, with the dramatic hills of the Haut Languedoc to one side and the wide valley floor below.

The further we pottered along, the more we enjoyed it, and it was just the balm our minds needed after the last couple of days.

Once off the canal path, we made good progress, helped by the fact that, for the first time since leaving home, the wind had shifted from being straight into our faces, to giving us a gentle shove from behind.

We stopped near a small village called Azille for lunch, with a stunning view across the vineyards and a soundtrack of a Nightingale singing, where we did our Daily Update

From here, we dropped into Olonzac, before heading on again to follow a road, alongside the Canal du Midi, which took us through Ventenac, where we had stayed with the boys, so many years ago. It was a beautiful ride, and a real trip down memory lane.

Like yesterday though, we had one eye on the weather, as storms were predicted again today, so we wanted to make sure that we had arrived at our destination, before they hit, filling our bottles from a canal-side pump, rather than stopping for a drink in a café to save time.

Our minds were quickly refocused from the views too, when we started to see a storm building, with dramatic black skies, and pouring rain in exactly the direction we were heading

Happily though, we managed to avoid the rain and arrived in Capestang, heading for the pretty main square, by the beautiful church, and sat watching the guests from a wedding that had just taken place, as we ate an ice cream in the shade of a Plane tree.

It has been a lovely day, and The ride may have been shorter than all the others, that we’ve done so far, but it was actually perfectly formed.

We will have another short day tomorrow, which will mean that we will really be able to enjoy a day in Pezenas, rather than just feel exhausted and then we’ll be looking at the last few days ride home.

I can hardly even start to think that this mad adventure may soon be over