MLast night we ate at our hotel, making it two evening meals at each of the two adjacent hotels. Once again, simple good food, presented in large portions. Al had dessert; I’d had mine at lunch.
I had cotélets d’agneau and Al had magrets de canard—for a change, we ordered different plats. But once again, our request for vegetables in place of some of the frites was accepted.
Al noticed the “Gendarmerie Impériale” label on this building through the restaurant window. It’s just across the street and up a very little so why hadn’t we noticed before?
The TI has installed several of these informative placards around the village. This one is especially interesting because it mentions the two hotels and the old Gendarmerie building (which appears to be empty now).
We got down to breakfast shortly after the buffet opened at 7:30. We wanted to get an early start today, even though our route was only 40 km. Those 40 km included 20 km of climbing and an elevation gain of 1200 m. Plus, if the last few days’ weather pattern continues, rain could start mid-afternoon.
As it was, it was a beautiful but tough climb, with average grades of 8% for most of the 20 km. It wasn’t a blue-sky day, but the clouds were high and didn’t rain on us. Some pics from the ride:
The start of the climb, just outside Beaufort proper.
We waited for the cyclist ahead of us to do their photos (Al had already done a selfie while waiting for me), then some young and very fast cyclists who’d passed me in that last km approached…
We came down from the left and around the rock outcrop. I wanted to get a photo looking back up but there wasn’t a good place to stop and cross the road. We saw very little traffic but you never know when it’s a blind corner.
Jacquie GaudetTo Bill ShaneyfeltMaybe! I’ll have to get a better photo when I see them again. This one was taken balancing over my bike. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
We found our hotel before 2 but the posted check-in time is 5. We decided to walk our bikes and go for lunch. We found a little place on La Grande Rue, the main pedestrian street which isn’t grand at all, for a light lunch. Then we checked out Allez Vélo, a rather high-priced café with attached bike workshop, and looked unsuccessfully for the other bike shop Google said was nearby. The reception area of our hotel was still dark so we sat at a table in its little back garden until the proprietor noticed us and came to check us in.
Later, we tried to find a restaurant on La Grande Rue but found only bars. At the bottom of the street, though, across the dug-up and blocked-off roundabout, we could see a building with multiple restaurants. We made our wsy across the construction zone and had a very good meal, accompanied by a glass each of Nero d’Avola.
