Day 50: Carcassonne to Narbonne

October 15, 2023

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Our room at the Hotel Bastide in Carcassonne worked really well, especially since we asked for and got a long extension cord, that allowed us both to listen to stories in the night, while keeping our phones charged. The feature of a plug by each side of the bed makes a big difference, and the two plugs are what I think of first when I see that a hotel is rated "two stars". (One star per plug!).

Or room had this huge balcony, which also meant a large door, good for ventilation.

We passed back through the old town, enjoying the sensation of knowing where things are, and that way being more able to sit back and enjoy.

This shot is from outside the gate of the old town. We also see a bit of the former wall.

We took the new(er) bridge over the Aude, and from there could look across at the "New Bridge" and also the City.

This morning Dodie mentioned that Keith and Kathleen had cycled Narbonne to Carcassonne a short time ago, and they had used a track obtained from Rich Frasier (who lives in nearby Limoux). Dodie said could I grab the Classen's track, in the next two minutes?

The reason tracks for Carcassonne/Narbonne are important is that there are two alternatives to actually knowing what you are doing. The first is to go with the Canal du Midi, which is the "official" bike route. You can do that, and in fact the mud track has been upgraded to gravel track, but ground speed will be 1/2 of what it otherwise could be (like on a real track, or road). The second option is to go with D6113, the bigger road. If you survive, you will be there real soon.

The thing about grabbing someone else's track, quick, is that there are a couple of tricks that you have to remember. If the track has been posted here to Cycleblaze, then one click takes you to Ride With GPS, with the track open. Ok great, but how to get that in your own GPS device, as a .gpx file? The trick is, you do not want to "Share" the track. The options there do not work for this, even though "sharing" generally seems a positive idea! And you do not want to "save" the track. To "save" they want you to (paradoxically) pay money, and if you want a "free trial" you have to remember some Google password, which you can not remember or find on short notice. No, the only way is to (reasonably, since you are now desperate) ask for "more", and from that choose to download the .gpx. If you then can find where the download got put in your device, you are on the way to using it for guidance. A two minute job? Sure Dodie, I did it!

We set off then, loosely with the Classen track, but with Dodie improvising along the way. A true forensic analysis of how we managed to get to Narbonne would involve throwing up all routes on the same page and comparing. I could do that!, but I think it's beyond the scope of the general reader.

Still, this question of the route was important today, and you will find the blog sprinkled more than usual with shots of "what did the road look like?"

Somehow in my first shot, we are on D6113!

Very quickly, we spotted our first olive trees. After days of hard slogging, we really have gotten South. We would soon see an orange tree, lots of wild fig, roadside herbs, and ultimately some palm trees. Wow!

Riding the dotted line, early. But note those "Van Gogh" cedar trees.

For a little bit we did jump on the Canal du Midi, just to see. Nope, not for us!

Sort of nit too bad here, but we are taking that escape bridge!

A big feature of the day was huge expanses of vines, plus hills in the distance.

We finally got onto proper tiny road, and really enjoyed looking at vines and especially espaliered apple plantings.

Checked these out, just for research! They are crispy and very mild, and huge!

The apples are densely planted. Someone has inconsiderately already harvested these!

This chateau was standing all on its own in the middle of acres and acres of vines.

There were lots of wild figs everywhere, but only this one had any fruit. It was very good, super sweet.

The chateau on closer inspection was not so grand, but still unique.

Something we had never seen before was dill, growing wild and really everywhere. We thought it a little stronger than regular dill.

Somehow, before Puicheric, back with the dotted line!

But then at Roquecourbe, and Castelnau, the D127 is ok.

More apples now. We remember from Provence in Fall, much "Pink Lady" awaiting late harvest. But this is not Pink Lady - or better check!

On D527 now, we feel we have seen snails behaving like this sometime before. What is their game?

Here is a sad sight - abandoned house and land.

Here we see it noted that we are passing through Cathar country. We will now come by at least three Cathar towns, each on some kind of hill, maybe built with circular streets, and generally walled and fortified in some way. The strange thing is that the all collapsed quickly in the Albigensian crusade. But they are great to look at today.

Just beyond Argens we have another look at the Canal du Midi. The path is again "not so bad".

This says they are working on the bike way, and will spend 7.3 million over three years. Argens to Argeliers is 20 km.

This is an olive chateau (and gite, where you can stay).

As everyone knows, this is as bitter as anything can get, until fermented.

Look, first orange tree, but only one today.

At Roubia - we have noticed that bells in towers are out in the open in this region.

At this point it got awfully hairy, with upwards of 15 cars charging by at once.

But look, the beginning of the bike way that we knew from Kathleen was coming.

Here we are now in the suburbs of Narbonne. Note that each house is stucco with tile roof and has a 5 foot wall. Palm trees!

The Canal de la Robine is the big feature of Narbonne old town, running right down the middle.

The main square has the Hotel de Ville on one side and this building, now a Monoprix, on the other.

Nearby is the Bishop's Palace/Cathedral complex.

Dodie went into the cathedral first, and got lost, taking a long time to come out. She got to see a lot during her wanderings and thought it was cool.

I went in, and yes, the arches were tall, but overall the place did not attract me. We are threatening to come back tomorrow with the sheet telling what to look at.

Yes, it's tall, almost as high as some of the famous ones, like Amiens.

Our very central place, at Hotel de France, is fine except perhaps for a shortage of outlets. But the bikes are where we can grab them quickly, and we are looking forward to going to Les Halles first thing in the morning. People in France are staying up tonight for the rugby. Not us! Nighty night.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,620 km (1,627 miles)

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Scott AndersonIn Narbonne already! You’ll be at the border in no time. Looking forward to seeing what route you take to get past the mountains.
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7 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonNow you have us worried since we don't really know what our route will be like. Hope it is not too much mountain climbing, but time will tell.
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7 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesI would give it some thought rather than just show up and hope for the best. We’ve tried three routes now, and they’re all significant challenges. Surprisingly, the route along the coastline might be the most difficult as well as the busiest.
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7 months ago