Postcards from Provence and beyond

It’s hard to believe that today was the end of Part 2 of our journey, and apart from the whole purpose of travelling home, it was the only reason that we had taken this route.

We were on our way into Toulouse, to watch Provence Rugby play their first Away Match of the season, at Colomiers.

I am sure that for many of you reading the blog, this seems a very strange reason to choose a route, and effectively interrupt a long cycle ride, through France, but Rugby is another of our passions, and we have been season-ticket holders at provence, for a few years now.

Last year, we organised our ride home, through France to watch the match at Angouleme, and this year, we realised we could plan the route to watch them play at Colomiers (just outside Toulouse) too.

After another peaceful night’s camping, on a beautiful site by the River Tarn, where we had spent the evening watching kingfishers darting across the river, as the sun set

we packed down the tent, and loaded the bikes for the ride into Toulouse, where we will be staying for a couple of nights.

It was another gentle day’s ride, following the Veloroute Des 2 Mers, from Moissac, into the heart of the city, so we settled in to enjoy the ride.

Shortly after joining the cycle path, I spotted a Chihuahua on the path ahead, and when it spotted us, it clearly decided that we were setting out to ruin its morning. How dare we interrupt its sniffing, and snuffling about?

In an instant, it changed from cute little dog, into a barking, snapping ‘sabre-toothed-hound’ that chased me along the path, leaving Andy in hysterics, calling it a ‘Little Tiger’ … I was using slightly different words! You can Watch a little video of the ride here

Happily, we cycled a lot faster than it could run, and within moments, peace had returned,

We stopped by the path for breakfast, watching dragonflies on the water, and enjoying the knowledge that we would have a much shorter day’s ride, as it was only just over 70km, to where we were staying for the night.

The path is incredibly easy to follow, with clear signs that show you where to cross bridges, as the path slips from one side of the Canal to the other.

After around 20km, we arrived at the amazing ‘incline-plane’ at Montech. This is an incredible piece of Civil Engineering that was constructed in the 1970s, to enable the new, huge barges, to pass easily past a run of smaller locks, near the town.

The result is a long, sloping channel, with a huge hydraulic ram, that was pushed and controlled by 2 big diesel engines. This allowed the barges to be pushed up, or contolled, down the ramp, floating on their own little part of the canal.

It’s been restored now, and is open to the public, so I took a look around, getting a sense of the scale of it, and a better idea of how it worked.

Whilst there, we decided it was coffee time, but it was at that moment that the gas ran out on our jet-boil, so we had to have cold water with our biscuits, instead. we also mentally added ‘get a gas canister’ to the growing list of chores we had to do, when we reached Toulouse.

We pedalled on again, and although it is pretty, we didn’t have as much to look at today, as there were no boats moving, at all.In fact, we didn’t see any on the canal, from the moment we left the Camp Site, to arriving in the heart of the city, which seemed very odd. Almost to the point that we wondered if the waterway was closed.

We had made good time, so sat on a bench by a lock, realising that there was a Decathlon, in an industrial estate, just across the next bridge, so we popped over, found a gas canister and could tick one thing off our list, and continue to enjoy our morning coffees too.The last part of the ride into Toulouse is quite industrial, but the paths continue along canals, and we happily pedalled past the traffic that was queueing, on the motorway.

Then we were in the heart of the city, overlooking the river and could relax. Part 2 of the journey was done, 770km pedalled, since leaving East Devon, and we were in plenty of time to chill out, before heading to the rugby.

We are rather fond of Toulouse, it’s pretty, vibrant and without traffic in the centre, wonderfully quiet too.

After a couple of hours, we started to plan our evening at the rugby, getting an Uber from the city, to the ground (which was remarkably easy), and finding our way into the Stadium.

We found a small group of travelling Provence supporters and joined them for what proved to be a fantastic match, that we eventually won (despite having lost 2 players from the pitch after bad play)

I sreamed, yelled, shouted and just had a thoroughly good time. In many ways it’s a bit like the child-like joy I have, whizzing down a hill on the bike,- and I love being able to cheer, chant, and leave myself hoarse, after a match.

It was an incredible evening, and it was certainly worth all the pedalling to get there.

The fact that the team won, was simply the icing on the cake.

All that was left was to get back into the city, and collapse for the night.

At least we have a day off now, to catch up on everything and amble around this beautiful place, before we head on again, for the last 500km pedal home.

Time though now for some R & R