Prades to Quillan

July 6, 2016

Climbing into the wind

This turned out to be a very tough day. Not only was a significant climb involved, but it was mostly against a headwind. From Prades I headed up the D 14, which I followed all the way to Col de Jau. The beautiful scenery was enough to take my mind off the climb, but I have to admit that the headwind was draining. It wasn't impossible, but at times it was much more than a cooling breeze that also kept the flies away.

Molitg-les-Bains looked very classy. It might have been a nice stop, if I had had a suitable companion for a splurge. But I didn't and it was less than 10 km into the day. I continued though Mosset, which had a very nice tourist info centre. Continuing upward, there was the Tour de Mascara well-placed to control traffic through the valley and then some scenic switchbacks to the Col.

Approaching Molitg-les-Bains. This would have been a nice place to stay, maybe? Closer, there were signs about no camping in the area. I suspect there's no budget accommodation either.

I liked this old building (house with attached barn?) with its lavender field gone wild.

Tour de Mascara? Not the bike race in Algeria, but this was approximately where my map indicates "Tour de Mascara" which I thought might be a tower.

Wild roses, one of my favourite flowers and the provincial flower of Alberta. I wasn't expecting to see them in France.

I don't usually take selfies, and include them even more rarely, but I like this one, even though I cut off the top of the sign and my chin.

Entering Département de l'Aude, where the road designation changes from D 14 to D 84

Down, down, down. How I love well-earned descents. On the way I passed a van marked "Federation Française de Ski" with a few young cyclists snacking. I passed more young cyclists on their way up. Sadly, I don't think this sort of cross-training is available to aspiring Canadian ski racers. As a former ski racer parent, I would have appreciated something like this, especially if it didn't cost an arm and a leg (as all such camps in Canada do).

At the intersection with D 17, I took the direction toward Roquefort-de-Sault, though the very nasty 1 km hill almost made me wish I hadn't. Roquefort-de-Sault is tiny, but I found an open café. Apparently there's another, but I didn't want to go up a steep street to find it. It was even called "End of the World" but that wasn't enough to entice me. The one I did find had a couple of likely regulars outside and some young teens inside--free wifi so glued to their phones. I had a fancy cheese toast and a tart with sablé crust and strawberries. And then the proprietor offered to fill my bottles with ice water! Very nice.

The friendly little café in Roquefort-de-Sault.

Ô Quebec chairs in the little café in Roquefort-de-Sault. Are they actually made in Quebec?

Good thing I had cold water because it was uphill again to Col de Garavel. I was bagged. The weather was very hot and I don't do heat well. At the next intersection, the choice was between the direct route through Escouloubre village, or the longer route over Col de Moulis to Escouloubre-les-Bains to join the D 118 about 8 km further south. I chose the shortcut. There were some signs at the intersection about a "diversion" but I thought it was about D 17 as I'd seen similar signs before.

It was an exhilarating descent of about 1 km to Escouloubre, where, on the other side of the village, was a sign announcing "Route Barrée à 6 km." What? I'd didn't want to climb back up so I thought I'd continue and see if a bike could get through. But it was a steep descent for the entire distance. A man on a motorcycle passed me, and I thought I'd see him coming back up if it was really impassable. But I didn't see him until the further "Route Barré" sign, with still nothing across the road. He was on his phone, but spoke to me and when I asked if he'd tried going further, he said no.

Really not wanting to climb all the way back up, I figured I might as well try. I continued on. There was a tunnel, short but long enough to be dark so that I couldn't see the road surface so I took it very slowly. Then I came to the problem: just where this road met the D 118, the bridge over the Aube was being resurfaced. The construction crew was two, a machine operator with a very small backhoe and a labourer. The backhoe operator was quite snotty, but he did let me through.

The D 118 through the Gorges de l'Aube was beautiful, gently descending through the gorge. At Gorges de St-Georges (one star I'm my Michelin map), I learned why they're called "balcony roads." I got always think of a balcony as an outdoor space an apartment might boast, but a sign made it clear that it was the limited clearance underneath that made it a balcony road.

This must be just to "catch" occasional rocks; I don't think it would stop any size of real rockslide.

The beginning of the balcony section. There wasn't a place in the balcony section where I felt safe to stop and take a photo.

After Axat, at the intersection of D 118 and D117, there was a nice tourist information building, with public washrooms. The D 117 and D 118 run together from this intersection to Quillan, but although it was busy and fast, I wasn't terrified.

It was a relief, however, to reach Quillan since I was tired and very hot. The municipal campsite here is a bit resorty. I greatly appreciated the pool (and the WCs provided with toilet paper), but I could have done without the loud electronic dance music at the pool concession. Is this Europop? In any case, it shut down at 10:30 so sleep was fine.

88 km; ascent 1647; descent 1652

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Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 475 km (295 miles)

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