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Day 8: Albi to Melvieu (100km)
Sunday club cyclists were gathering as we started our run out of town. We crossed the river over the Pont du 22 Août 1944 (the date of the liberation of Albi) and paused to look back at the view of Albi and its cathedral. This was the beginning of a long journey beside the Tarn River. We cycled through Lescure and took a quick up and down to reach Arthes and join the Tarn banks. We were overtaken by a cycle chain-gang speeding along while we were pondering the route at a small one-way loop through the village. It was easy cycling until the valley narrowed and the road took a steep climb up the gorge side towards Sérenac, but before reaching the top we dived off to the right, ignoring a ‘route barré’ sign, to return to river level.
From here it was a delightful easy pedal along small undulating roads beside the river and through chestnut and oak trees. The road turned to cross a bridge into Ambialet, where we stopped to buy bread and have a coffee and cake stop beside the river. We discussed why the river appeared to be flowing uphill as we walked through waterworks (noting the evacuation warning signs) to the barrage on the other side of the river bend. On down the river crossing and re-crossing it and cycling through our first tunnel (with lights) to Courris, Trebas and Lincou. In Lincou we did some shopping for cheese. The road continued along the riverbank beside remnants of vineyards to Brousse-le-Château where we stopped for some sightseeing to admire its little passageways and ruined castle and château beside the river. We ate our picnic lunch sitting on grass beside the river at Brousse-le-Château including a cherry stone spitting competition. A short run on and across a bridge led us to pull up at the traffic lights of the first of three unlit narrow 400m+ (and with bends) tunnels from a former railway line. Our guidebook had warned us not to try this without good lights and we had brought a head torch to supplement the bike lights just for this. We investigated the tunnel but it was soon obvious that we could not see the far end, were unlikely to reach it before the traffic lights changed again and there was nowhere to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. We decided to go for discretion and retreated back across the bridge. The detour involved a stiffish climb up to and back down from St Izaire. While stopped and pondering our direction at a junction back on route before the end of tunnel 3 we were engaged by English couple in car who stopped to warn of tunnel horrors based on a previous failed attempt they had made to negotiate the first of this trio of tunnels by bike. Further inspection revealed that No.3 did not even have traffic light control. A steep climb towards Broquiès, then back down returned us to our intended route beside the Tarn again travelling upstream from barrage to barrage. There was little or no accommodation beside the Tarn itself so Sheila had booked us into a Logis a short distance off our route. The implications of this became clear when we stopped at Le Truel for a beer. We were in a deep gorge. Sheila’s little detour to a Logis at Melvieu would be via a road straight up the side of the gorge at the end of a 100km day. Better get on with it - low gear zigzag from hairpin bend to hairpin bend ever upwards until Melvieu church came into sight above the road, that circled around the village and still upwards to the Logis front door. We stopped pedalling and stopped ‘dead’ at the front door. After putting the tandem in a garage underneath and having showers and some recovery time we wandered through the pretty little village with flowers on steps and balconies. Back at the Logis it was pastis at the bar and a chat to a retired shepherd. We were the only people dining and enjoyed the cheap but super multi-course dinner for two. With pauses between courses it required four hours eating time. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
Day 9: Melvieu to Le Rozier-Peyreleau (65km)
There were wet roads and misty dampish weather as we set off (remembrance of Welsh hills on our earlier tour this year). At first we continued climbing towards St Victor until at Le Planol we turned left onto the D510 for a cautious descent on a steep wet road to a junction with the valley road climbing up this side of the Tarn gorge. Still going downhill to Pinet perched above the river we reached and crossed the Tarn on a bridge above the dam.
It was now time to climb the other side of the side of the gorge on a steep and long climb opening up long high views. From here the winding road clung to the side of the crag before dropping back down on a gentle descent to river level and on towards Candas. By now we were back into fine weather garb and paused for a fig rolls and comfort stop beside the railway line before Candas. From here it was a pleasantly undemanding ride beside the river and we made steady progress to reach the busy large town of Millau. We checked out the tourist office and parked the tandem to do some food shopping, which included a coffee stop at a café beside a colonnade on one side of the town’s main square. From there it was a very short walk into the square itself for our picnic lunch on a bench under a shady tree and beside a fountain. Cruising on beside the Tarn the river became noticeably narrower. We admired orchards of well-laden cherry trees. The tourist popularity of the area could be seen by the campsites count increasing. The gorge cliffs also increased in size with Mont Peyrelade doing its impression of a giant castle in the air as we cycled past Boyne. Once more over a river bridge and we were into the one-way system to reach the main street of Le Rozier. There are actually twin towns of Le Rozier with Peyreleau immediately above it. Together they form a defensive gateway to the Tarn and to the Jonte gorge leaving the Tarn eastwards. We visited the tourist office and shop, took in an ice cream in a café in le Rozier, and then set off on a walking tour of the steps and passages of Peyreleau up to the tower at its centre. Our accommodation for the night was in a hotel in the centre of Le Rozier, with the tandem tucked away in a store a few doors further along the same street frontage. We dined in at the hotel. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
Day 10: Le Rozier-Peyreleau to Le Rozier-Peyreleau (70km)
Today was scheduled to be our second rest day, but having explored le Rozier-Peyreleau the previous afternoon and evening we decided to take a gentle cycle ride along the Jonte gorge before we set off along the Tarn again the next day. This ‘restful’ day turned out to be more strenuous than planned – it must have been the liberation of cycling without loaded panniers.
We departed up the Gorges de la Jonte in cool morning mountain air with our pertex tops on, but soon shed these once the sun rose above the canyon rim. Although our general direction was upwards the road was up-and-down as it climbed away from and returned to the river allowing views of the gorge from river level and high up on the canyon side. Overall we made steady uphill progress. Spectacular cliffs and pinnacles came into view in an unending succession. We stopped at a vulture viewing point (it was not open) having seen vultures wheeling in the sky above us. Then, still climbing, we continued to reach Meyrueis. This pretty town had an upland feel to it with slate roofs instead of the familiar orange tiles on our tour so far. We did some food shopping and while sitting in a café drinking coffee we planned what to do next. The easiest and obvious option would be to spend some time in Meyrueis before cycling at a steady pace back down the Jonte gorge to Le Rozier. This would leave us well rested for the challenges of the following day. Any other options would involve some serious climbing and because of the mountainous countryside only one offered the possibility of a circular trip. OK, spectacularly splendid as the Jonte gorge had been, “let’s press on and see something new”. No respite now, we turned back along the Jonte gorge, but now on the D986 instead of D996. This single digit change meant that instead of going down the gorge we were climbing diagonally up its cliff face. The good news was that it appeared as though the wind could be on our backs at last and free from luggage the climbing if not exactly easy was certainly ‘less hard’. Eventually we swung away from upper gorge onto the Causse Méjean just touching an altitude of 1000m. Cycling on top of the world through hay fields northwards across the Causse we were again battling strong headwinds. We took a stop for water beside the church at La Parade. It was cold as we continued downhill into the wind on the road towards St Enimie, but once we turned westwards we were in sunshine and shelter on the D16 road from Carnac. It was time for a picnic lunch amongst the wild flowers on the top of the Causse. After lunch we continued climbing again to crest the Col de Rieisse (946m). From here there were long long-range views down to Les Vignes far below in the bottom of the Tarn gorge. We plummeted down the unprotected hairpin bends in a zigzag descent with spectacular views and lots of advice from the back of the tandem about brakes, bends and hot rims. We made various photo stops on our way down and at one point a passer-by took a photo of the two of us posing beside our tandem in sunshine. Rolling into Les Vignes we stopped in a car park by the bridge to refuel with bananas and water. From Les Vignes we followed the road back down the Tarn through assorted tunnels, stopping just before Le Rozier in a café overlooking the Tarn. We counted the vultures wheeling overhead while sitting enjoying our drinks. We arrived back in Le Rozier to see and photograph the evening sunlight on Peyreleau before stowing the tandem away, showering, changing and walking up the steps to a restaurant in Peyreleau for dinner. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
Day 11: Le Rozier-Peyreleau to Le Pont-de-Montvert (80km)
The start of our continued journey along the Tarn gorge was retracing our way back the day before through the short tunnels. It was cool in the early morning in the shade of the cliffs so once we reaches Les Vignes we stopped and sat by the Tarn waiting for the sun to rise above the rim of the canyon wall.
The scenery became even grander as we continued, with rock formations towering above us while the Tarn, not tamed here by the lower downstream dams, was rushing along as a crystal clear torrent. We pulled up at a viewing point beside some rapids in order to ascend a ‘2 francs ladder’ to a viewing platform. In truth we saw many similar sights without payment all the way along the upper Tarn but for 2 francs we did not feel cheated. Continuing along the gorge past all the towering sights we reached La Malène. This is a particularly narrow and scenic stretch of the river. After photographing the river from a belvedere high above the water we dropped down into the village and booked a place on a boat trip down the Tarn over gentle rapids and through the narrow cliffs of Les Détroits that could only be seen at river level and from the water. There were more tunnels and super scenery along the road to St Enimie where we stopped in a café for lunch (part 1). Then we cycled up the hill for lunch (part 2 - crepes) at a café in the town square, followed by some sightseeing around very well preserved / restored narrow historic streets and passageways. From St Enimie to Ispagnac the gorge widened and the road climbed up for views from a high level. We stopped at the Le Chambonnet road sign for a ‘Tandem 2,000 miles’ photo together with John perched on the road sign. A short spell on a main road towards Florac followed, but before reaching Florac we turned off onto D998 still following a fast reducing Tarn up into the hills. We then suffered our first and only puncture stop of the trip. Finding the culprit to be a large thorn we suspected it to be self-inflicted as a result of wedging the tandem into a thorn bush for the previous 2,000 miles photo. The inner tube was changed in the shade from a tree on a campsite. While doing this we talked to an English cyclist en route from Nice to the Lake District, who seems surprised at our intention to get to Pont-de-Montvert that evening. What did we not know? With the puncture mended we were back on the tandem ready for the long (20km) uphill journey to Pont-de-Montvert. We did not get far (only a couple of kms) before requiring a rest stop at Cocurès for Isostar bars, fig rolls and cherries. While there we chatted to a passing local who relayed our plans to his friends. Their response was much hand shaking and an exclamation of “Pont-de-Montvert? Mon chapeau!!”. Being new to cycling in France and naïve about arcane French cycling expressions the true significance of ‘chapeau’ was lost on us. We were to learn better. There was no escaping the long uphill steady pull through changing hill scenery as we gained height into the Cévennes – just keep turning the cranks. There was however a final welcome relief. Our expectation of a final slog into town turned out to be a mis-reading of map contours and in fact was a short but welcome freewheel downhill. We checked into our Logis hotel, put away the tandem in a basement garage; and after recovering ventured out for a sightseeing stroll around the town in the heart of Robert Louis Stevenson + donkey country. Dinner was back in our hotel. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
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