events

I had to stop and take a photo of this house front, someone has spent a lot of time decorating it.  From here for the next 8 or 9km was downhill, fantastic.

This is the first time I've seen the sea, in spite of being about 500m from it at Vias Plage, and those are the Pyrenees slowly going down to meet it in the distance there.  I'd be going over one of those passes tomorrow morning, how exciting.

they're called Les Orgues d'Ille-sur-Têt.  From here the descent steepens and becomes quite curvy, I could have gone faster but had a camper van in front of me that I couldn't overtake without taking risks.

After Ille-sur-Têt it was flat or even downhill to Thuir but the wind was very strong, at various points I was pedalling hard in bottom gear going downhill!  Very depressing.

Thuir was good in that I found an epicerie that was doing freshly roasted chickens, and they'd sell me half a one.  So, fighting the wind that was threatening to blow my chicken away, I ate it and half a baguette in the shade of a tree just on the outskirts.

The ascent to here was endless, steep mountain road with curves up through pine and holm oak woods, and very hot too.  I was so glad to get to this point and the almost 10km of descent to St Jean Pla de Corts, which I took slowly and savoured, was great with views of the Pyrenees and the sea.  

Click on this small thumbnail picture to see a larger one of a different view.