It was good to get on the road, but before I launch into the ride I will mention that we had a great time exploring Toulouse yesterday. Coffee and some fantastic orange blossom water cake with chocolate filbert topping at La Fiancee cafe. Then, a great dinner at a Japanese ramen joint just 2 doors down from the place we were staying. We had gyoza first, then a huge bowl of ramen done just right, washed down with a couple of Sapporo beers.
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| The cake was fantastic |
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| La Fiancee in Toulouse |
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| Shin Ya is super popular, with good reason |
There are 2 seatings (of 10 each), one at 7, the other at about 8. We had to wait for the 8:00 seating but it was well worth it as many were turned away...
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| Hopefuls... |
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| Shin-Ya's counter |
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| Ramen and beer! |
After another fantastic breakfast we said goodbye to our great host in Toulouse and headed southwest toward the Pyrenees. Our ride took us to a small village called Galan -- there's no real reason why we're stopping there other than it seemed like a reasonable distance (about 110 km but more importantly about 50 km from the first big climb of the Pyrenees, the Tourmalet. Here's the map:
This route is rolly and it is always a bit tough getting used to the rhythm of the road, the way that the bike handles with our load, and unplugging a bit from the pressures of work. Even though we've tried to minimize the amount of stuff we are carrying, damn! this bike is heavy. I'll probably complain more when we're in the mountains.
The road took us through countless valleys that are purely agricultural. It is a very pretty area, the Haute Pyrenees, and we could see the major mountains off in the distance. The day was perfect weather with little wind.
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| A Sunday market in Toulouse |
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| Along the Canal du Midi again |
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| Past the Capitol building |
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| Working our way through a small village |
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| Beautiful agricultural areas |
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| Entering Galan |
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| We think that there's a festival today! |
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| And of course there is a church... |
We found the place where we are staying - a BnB (there is no camping that we could find) called Le Clos Galan. Cool place: a 200 year old farmhouse that has been converted to a guest house in a very nice way. But it is Sunday afternoon and there is nothing open. Argh. The proprietors of Le Clos told us that the finale of the festival is tonight. So we wandered to the Stade to see what was going on and maybe find some food. Not so much on the food, but at least we found some beer.
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| Le Clos du Galan |
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| Our home for the night |
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| Bike storage, circa 1832 |
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| Le Marie in downtown Galan |
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| Beer at the festival |
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| There will be fireworks later, at 2300, but I'm pretty sure we'll miss that part of the festival |
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| The interior of the barn |
We're both pretty knackered after our first day on the bike. No food anywhere, so we'll eat double at breakfast tomorrow! The, to La Mongie and the Col du Tourmalet. Should be interesting.
A demain.
No food at a festival??! What the?
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