October 24, 2010
Cahors to Montauban: rain, rain, rain
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WEATHER: EXCEEDINGLY SOGGY!
We woke up to rain. Heavy rain. At breakfast we discussed taking the train to Montauban, and we went over to the station to look at the train times. Because of la grève there was only one train late in the afternoon, so we decided to go for it on the bikes. We put on all our rain gear and took off. At first there was a long uphill slog, but the rain gradually lessened and even quit for a short time up near the top of the grade. Not for long though. By the time we got to Castlenau-Montratier, hopefully our lunch stop, we were well and thoroughly soaked. The small soggy market in the square was just finishing up, and people were sitting outside the one brasserie under the arcade having coffee. We parked the bikes and managed to slide into the last available table inside the restaurant. We couldn't lock the bikes and we couldn't see them from where we were sitting, but the waitresses said they'd keep an eye on them. We were only moderately damp underneath our jackets, but our gloves were sodden. We sat down and squeezed them out into a potted plant.
The jovial crowd gave the small restaurant a festive atmosphere, and we thoroughly enjoyed our assiette: a plate of lamb chops, delicious roast potatoes and braised leeks with a large piece of cheese and a demi-pichet of vin rouge, with crème caramel and berry pudding for dessert. Unfortunately our clothes did not completely dry even though it was a very leisurely lunch. We kept thinking the rain was stopping while we ate, but in fact by the time we left it was coming down harder than ever. We toughed it out and got back on the bikes for another 33 amazingly wet and grey kilometres.
As we approached Montauban the drops from the plane trees lining the road were so large that they hit Al's bell and made it ring repeatedly. Unfortunately this was the one time that we didn't have the exact street address of our lodging handy, and Eva had to find a sheltered doorway to root through her pannier for the street number, which turned out to be one door away (not clearly marked).
When the proprietor opened the door to Le Boudoir de Faubourg, we found our dripping selves in a large, pew-lined chamber with a huge oriental rug, which in turn opened into an interior courtyard where the rain was pouring down. Then a couple of flights up sagging circular stairs to a large apartment with another foyer entryway where we met Pierrette, our hostess. Our room was large and furnished in a traditional style with very welcome tea making equipment. After our cup of tea (and some homemade cake from Pierrette) we were most pleased to shower and change into dry clothes and to be indoors. For dinner that night, we walked to the very closest brasserie and had pizza. We didn't care that it was a very ordinary dinner--we were just glad to be dry.
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We learned some things about our raingear from this very soggy ride. Our Mountain Equipment Co-op tights and booties performed perfectly, as did Eva's MEC "Whoosh" rain jacket and her inexpensive helmet cover. Al's hooded gore-tex jacket was wet right through, plus his hood blocked his blinking helmet light (which we needed as it got very dim in the late afternoon). Our "waterproof" gloves were anything but. We have since remedied these deficiencies.
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 430 km (267 miles)
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