May 11, 2025
Toulouse to Berenx
We woke up having slept reasonably well, although I still felt like I was coming down with a low-grade cold. We cleaned up and it was then I noticed that rather than one bug bite on my back I had a string of 7 or 8 large red welts across by shoulder. It was itching like crazy. It was Sunday so no chance of an open pharmacy near the train station in Toulouse to purchase any pain relief.
Our train didn’t leave until 13:34 so we hung around the little hotel and worked on our journal. It wasn’t great; breakfast was okay with good bread. There we met Abs and Liam, two Brits who bought a house in Limoges and who spend most of their time in France. They also had a flat in Paris and segued between the two places. They were very enthusiastic about living in France.
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The lobby where we sat was small and four men nearby were having a very loud, prolonged conversation that made it hard for us to concentrate. Plus we were slightly cranky - me with my low-grade cold or whatever it was — and both of us being somewhat weary on train travel after yesterday.
At 12:45 we headed over to the train station. Our platform was announced in plenty of time. As with hotels, once you traverse a few train stations you get pretty opinionated as to what makes for a good one, especially if you are a cyclist. In the case of Toulouse-Matabiau it's the cat’s meow: the lifts are big enough you can roll one bike into the lift at a time without taking off your panniers. Many, perhaps most lifts aren’t big enough to allow our bikes in without locking the rear wheel and pulling up on the handlebars to bring the bike vertical. Dave can do this no problem but I am fearful and we have talked about working on that maneuver so I can manage it myself if I ever have to. Happily, I have Dave: value-added.
Once again as we waited at the track we could feel the tension among the cyclists rise as to whether there would be room on board for everyone. Again, the conductors did not check bike reservations. And again, everyone worked to load the bikes into a space designed for two bikes that got filled with four.
It was Sunday afternoon and there were quite a few families on the train: the amount of stuff everyone carries on is pretty hilarious (hey- who are we to talk with our big bikes?) and there were numerous scooters, baby carriages, huge suitcases. Somehow it all works in this mysterious organic way. The kids were cute and ran around creating diversions for the rest of us.
It was a three hour train ride to Orthez - our destination at the edge of the Pyrennes - and it some point a couple with very muddy mountain bikes climbed on adding to the mayhem. They had a long conversation with the conductor and we suspect they didn’t have a reservation, but after a 15 minute conversation the conductor let them stay on; their bikes were lodged in the vestibule and one of the bikes kept swinging around - not being anchored by the designed bike spaces.
At some point we all started to discuss how to disembark. We were departing in Orthez which was scheduled for only a one minute stop - which is nerve-racking since it is quite possible that the train will start to leave before you have everything out. (I have memories of people handing my panniers down to me as the train started leaving the station ….) Dave has gotten pro-active about this issue. He google translates into French where we are getting out and approaches other cyclists asking where they plan to depart. He has pretty serviceable schoolboy French but the google translation is a back up in case his spoken French fails to work. The good news: every cyclist understands the issue. In the present case, we learned the other bikes blocking our bikes were also leaving in Orthez which was a relief We would leave together.
We unloaded together with no drama in the allocated one minute and found a lift even though Orthez was a tiny station - unmanned - and the lift was outside but serviceable.
At Orthez we had a 10 km ride to our lodging, a Logis Auberge Relais and Restaurant in the village of Bérenx, a place you would have never have heard of. It was 4:30 when we left but nice bright weather. As we were leaving town we saw an open pharmacy and Dave offered to stop so I could acquire about some bug-relief medicine but I declined, being anxious to arrive at our inn.
When we did arrive we had a bit of drama. The clerk at the Logis was charming and nice and didn’t speak a lick of English but she somehow managed to inform us that the hotel restaurant was closed that evening, and indeed at 7 pm, the entire staff was planning to leave and lock up the lobby and dining room. (I had asked when I booked the room to also book us a table for dinner and it would have been nice had they emailed/ texted us saying that was not possible.) To make matters worse, she advised there were no restaurants in the village open Sunday night. Gotta’ love France. Bear in mind this entire conservation was going on in French with Dave (and me) picking up enough to know we were screwed. In the meantime I was madly considering what provisions we had on hand: one apple (two days old), one very small rice cake and about a tenth of a bar of chocolate bar we had picked up in the minibar in Munich (three weeks ago). It was cheap milk chocolate with some preservative in it so it didn’t melt much - which I guess was good in this circumstance.
And that’s where you have to love cycle touring: people are just nice when you need them to be. Seeing our woebegone looks and frantic tone, she at last offered to ask her boss, who was painting since it was Sunday (?), if he would fix us a plate when he had finished painting. We accepted that offer with appreciation and relief. We envisioned bread and cheese or something similar which sounded much better than half an apple, half a rice cake and a few grams of bad chocolate. We did have the foresight to ask her to throw in a bottle of rosé!
We duly parked our bikes in her small shed and were shown to our digs; I had reserved the triple room because it was the only room with a tub - and as luck would have it, it was up two flights of stairs which was funny since there was only one other couple staying at the inn. It was a very cute hotel and pretty much our speed and we were sorry we couldn’t eat dinner in the dining room.
We really like Logis Hotels - they tend to be in obscure parts of France - which is where we often are. They are moderately priced and nice enough to be comfortable without being overly fancy and they always have decent and interesting dining - which occasionally is NOT open. They feel very French and each one is different.
Our host knocked on our door half an hour latter and summoned Dave downstairs so he could see where the “plate” was stored for dinner in the fridge. As it turned out we were getting a full bore meal - three courses each and a carafe of water (and the wine) including dessert. Dave had no idea what was under each cover - and we didn’t care as we were just happy to be fed.
We had a fun evening. Dave was able to connect up the tv to his tablet to watch the Giro and after a reviving tub for both of us he popped down to retrieve the dinner and here is:
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We had no idea what the starter was (some tomato pepper thing) but the main course was chicken curry and rice and the dessert was strawberry mousse - and the wine was a good local rosé.
Things always work out at the end of the day. We were snug and fed and done with trains for awhile!
Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 547 km (340 miles)
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