Day 27, 17 6 2013, Agde to Toulouse
As we rode out of Agde this morning Roz and I had a discussion about which of the 200 hotels and B&Bs we have stayed in in Europe was the worst. I voted for Naples, a hotel without a redeeming feature, and to make it worse, the walls of our room were wet. It was a Lonely Planet recommendation.
Roz thought that as the hotel never pretended to be other that a shit hotel, that was a redeeming feature.
We are agreed that the hotel Donjon in Adze came close. I voted it second worst. There were certainly no redeeming features, the hot water was not hot, the globe in the bedside light did not work amongst a host of other issues, and the breakfast was undoubtedly the worst ever. To finish things off, a cat pissed on Roz’ bike in their garage.
The best hotel we stayed in was in Sweden.
Agde is close to the beginning of the canal du midi, a fantastic engineering achievement of Louis 14, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It runs as far as Toulouse, where it connects to the Garonne system that leads to the Atlantic.
There is a bike path along the length of the canal du midi, some of which we have ridden in the past. So today we rode just as far as Beziers and then caught the train to Toulouse. We also do not have time to ride all the way to Paris, so this is an obvious section to leave out.
The ride along the canal on a warm day is great, as it is shaded by large plane trees that form a canopy over the canal. The story is that Napoleon decreed that they be planted so his soldiers could march in the shade.
These trees define Catalonia and adjoining areas such as this. They provide shade and a distinctive and very attractive city scape.
We arrived in Toulouse around 3.00pm, discussed riding on and decide to spend the night here and have a look around.
This city is a little different in that it does not have the defined medieval core so common in European cities, and also lacks the grandeur of a city such as Lyon. However, it comes across as pleasant, distinctive, and very liveable.
An easy 30Km today. Tomorrow we start towards Lourdes and the Pyrenees.
Why is it that cafes believe that dribbling something brown on a plate makes the food worth 2E more?
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