From there it was downhill on wonderful sweeping roads to the plains and a planned visit to Carcassonne. The fields were bright yellow (rapeseed?) and the sun was shining- what more could I want?
And yet when I finally got to Carcassone (bear in mind I was on local roads so lots of 50kmh sections) I struggled to find the Cité (the old fortress) and when I got there after a couple of Laois and asking a couple of people, I was underwhelmed…probably tiredness on my part.
Anyway it was now about 5.30 and I had no wish to stay in hot and bustling Carcassone so I made what turned out to be a poor decision.
I had a hankering to return to Albi and pleasant recollections of the Ibis Budget there so having checked there were only ‘isolated showers’ I set off on the 1h45min ride.
Unfortunately the hills in between were very wet and Garmin decided a windy backroad route was quicker. That all was manageable but on the backroad route some road work lead to the dreaded ‘route barree’
.
So now, tired by this point, I was riding the Goldwing in bucketing rains down boreens (or the French equivalent) wishing I had just stayed out in the sun and heat!
No photos of this, for obvious reasons, but eventually at 19h45 I was happy to ride into the underground car park of the Ibis and shed my waterproofs!
It was a long day, starting with a departure at 0915, and with a lot of challenging roads, so after a hot shower I demolished a Leffe and a pizza and fell into a deep sleep.
But not before consulting various weather forecasts which told me there was plentiful rain and gale force winds to my North so it would be a good day to stay put!
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