The Airbus factory tour later that day gave us an insight in to the logistics behind such a pan European project with major components moving a number of times across the continent before final assembly in Toulouse. Whilst the A380 project has fallen well short of its planned sales the A320 has become the mainstay of no frills airlines such as EasyJet and future hopes are pinned on the A350.I stayed the night and was lucky enough to see the Beluga taking off the following morning as I left for the Space Centre.
This provided a very entertaining day with mock ups of the MIR space station, lunar landers, and a Soyuz space capsule interspersed with an informative hour in the planetarium and a film covering the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Medieval Fanjeau en route to Carcassonne provided a spacious aire and a pleasant village to walk around and I spent time (to no avail) trying to rectify my squeaking bike brakes. In fact all pressure evaporated so the following day I dropped it off at Mondo Velo in Carcasssonne for their expert attention and returned to Fanjeaux to give Mandy's bike a good clean and check over as it will see less use over the next few months.
The following day I moved on to Mirepoix which has a superb galleried centre and was the starting point for a voie verte down to Lavelanat which gave me a good 53 mile ride interspersed by lunch in the sun at a small cafe run by a French/English couple.Saturday morning saw me doing laundry at the supermarket machine and enjoying the food market in the village where a clever bike powered apple juicer caught my eye.
Then it was a return to Mondo Velo where a new calliper and lever had sorted the issue for around £100. Later I disassembled the old calliper to find that one of the ceramic pistons had lost a section preventing the pads from retracting and the particles had damaged the seal.
A pleasant drive over the Montagne Noir through chestnut forests where hunters and their dogs were busy peering in to the mists brought me down to La Bastide for the night. Another VV took me west to Mazamet one day and then east to Bedarieux the next passing the start of the Gorge D'Heric to which I returned the following day for a spectacular walk up the deep gorge to a small buvette at Heric.
This inspired me to then tackle a walk up to Mont Caroux and across to the hamlet of Douch before returning via the gorge once more. The ascent was steep initially and then eased off as the plateau and a simple refuge were reached. At Douch there was a lovely bee hotel and an enormous stone slab made an impressive table alongside the village's communal bread oven that was available to all.
It was time to move on again and after passing through more stunning chestnut forests I reached Montclar above the Tarn where the tiny hamlet had provided a free aire with electric hook up and a panoramic view. However there was little else although at dusk I walked up to the water tower which served as a viewpoint over the rolling countryside and after sunset was beautifully illuminated by blue spotlights.
The next day I went back in time as I entered the small village shop which I had missed the previous day to be served by an elderly lady who wrote down all the prices and used a wooden drawer as a till. There was a very limited range of products but I emerged with bread, saucisson and some Breton cider that ensured a snoozy afternoon.
Heading along the impressive Tarn gorge I reached Peyre which clings to the cliffs above the river just short of the graceful Millau viaduct. The old church is partially built in to the rock as are a number of houses and at this time of year I had the place largely to myself.
In Millau I stocked up on food and gas before following the Dourbie gorge towards the Cevennes and pitched up at Alzon from where I decided to combine two local walks in to one larger undertaking.
Initially I climbed steeply in to the Cevennes NP on a foggy day meeting a few hunters whose dogs sported collars with transponders. I then dropped down on to the Causses and walked in to Homs and over the dry barren limestone before returning to Alzon after almost 18 miles.
Today I have only moved on a few miles as torrential rain and impressive thunderstorms seem to be set in and have thus taken a days additional internet access (£5 unlimited) as my regular bundle isn't due to renew for a week. Using the internet has really opened up access to the walking, cycling and accommodation opportunities available - a far cry from soon outdated guidebooks and maps.
www.af3v.org provides an excellent interactive map for planning traffic free cycling (and in English!), www.ceventrail.org has provided a number of walking ideas and the excellent Camperstop app has enabled me to stay in some memorable places at no cost.
Campingaz is quite a large part of my outgoings at around £2 a day as a 907 cylinder at around £20 lasts 10 days. Diesel is a little cheaper than the UK although I am covering less than 40 miles a day on average and I use the Total Excellium which does give extra mpg and should prolong the working life of both diesel injectors and the Eberspacher which has seen only a little use but no doubt will come in to play as winter beckons.
I have a flight back home from Milan in a month for 3 weeks so now head across the Cevennes and in to the Vercors before veering towards Italy.
Other piccies sit here and I will start using the SPOT device occasionally so check here for random locations.
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Hi Simon, when we switched from the VW to the Toyota we were shocked at the price of campingaz (having previously had spirit burners in the VW). No space for anything bigger than a 907 which also ate into our water storage space as the van was designed for hiking cylinders, we fitted an LPG tank underneath. 16L tank, of which 12.8L is usable - lasts us approx 30-55 days depending on time of year and last fill up was 66p/l. Expensive to install, but worth it over time. Useful links for cycling routes there. Was in France last month (https://www.polarsteps.com/DanEgleton/2403369-france-2019?s=870AD65B-DF2B-40EC-8767-44539DAD3CFC) and tried to understand the VVV routes, seemed to be on roads? dan and Rosana
ReplyDeleteHi Dan/Rosana good to hear from you. My gas costs are fortunately more than offset by zero camping costs and I'm not sure there is room for an underslung tank as my ground clearance is already a bit low. A 907 refill in Morocco is 80p and they are only around £12 in Spain and Portugal.
DeleteYou have to choose VVs carefully to avoid roads, although the ones involved are usually pretty quiet. Get the IGN924 map as it identifies the traffic free routes. Perhaps see you at HUBB 2020?
That's a good deal cheaper than we experienced, nearly 40 euros for a 907 in Germany once - but we were in a bind (half way through dinner!) and couldn't shop around. Doesn't makes sense to change at that price. Don't know about HUBB, it has a habit of clashing with other things! Will see closer to it.
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