(Note: the route we followed is no longer possible as of October, 2023. There is a barricade across the trail just south of the point where it crosses A9. See The Classen’s misfortune and their workaround.)
Very beautiful day, and very diverse. One of the most colorful of the tour. Slow going though, or more accurately we go slow because there's so much to admire. For the fourth consecutive day we arrive late, getting in just before seven.
Paradoxical - we come to the easiest riding of the tour, and it slows us down.
In Gruissan, with a morning look that could fit right in back at home on the coast.
We biked about a mile when we came across this, and stopped for about twenty minutes to look and listen (they were close enough to shore to hear well also). This is the first time I've been close enough to really watch their mesmerizing behavior.
Our quiet canal-side road deteriated to dirt path, and then to this. We biked along the shore for some yards and then flopped the bikes on the beach and walked.
We keep running into the couple on the left. We met them yesterday at the Abbey, when they asked advice for the best route to Narbonne. It was startling to see them roll through Gruissan this morning while we were scrounging up a lunch.
Caution: sandwiches on board. Leaving Gruissan, we provision for lunch, envisioning a scenic picnic site by the sea. Instead, we're fated to enjoy our meal sitting on uncomfortable rocks beside the road, while I repair yet another flat tire.
On the new pedestrian bridge at Serignan, crossing the Orb. The action below is a duck feeding frenzy - hundreds of them are clustered, waiting for bread to fall from the heavens. They look like carp thrashing in the water, they're so numerous.
Here we are again! We're back once more cycling along the Canal du Midi, not far from where it ties to the Mediterranean at Agde. We're on a particularly beautiful stretch, and a well maintained one - our bike tires squeak and stick to the freshly laid tar, leaving slight tracks in it.
Southwest of Mountblanc we found ourselves on a series of broken, poor quality roads through the pine forests and pastures. Sometimes semipaved like this, sometimes gravelly and sandy enough that we pushed for a bit.
