We were out of the hotel by 8 am, bought and eatern baguette and cheese in the centre of town and on our way around 8.30 and luckily it was a Sunday morning because we had to use a red road to get out of town. In fact it was so quiet that we ended up using the red road for 20 K's! A record for this trip I think.
We used the red road until we had crossed the river Garonne and, after a climb up a hill beside the river, we turned off and dropped back down to the nearby town before following a valley for some distance. Unfortunately the valley, which was probably quite pretty, was slightly uphill, into a headwind and after not too long into rain :( We had done really well for the first 30 odd K's, but once that wind hit I just seemed to loose all power. Paul kept dropping me whenever we hit even a minor hill. I think the cold was part of the problem too, we thought it was around 20C, much too cold for my preference. We battled the head wind, and rain, for 8 K's to a town, but alas there was nothing, a few building, a closed church. Bugger. So we continued on to the next town, only 6 K's. However after 4 K's it was still 6 K's away and it turned out that the second sign was correct. When we finally got there we just sat in the shelter of the church front steps and ate a pastry we had bought earlier while we watched the rain fall.
Eventually we set off but alas from here we need to cross out of one valley and into another so there was a bit of a hill. It was a bit hard getting going after the stop. Once at the top we dropped down to the next town, or at least to the hill that the town was on top of. It really poured on the way down here and it was officially raining now, I had water in my shoes. We decided to ride up into the town, it was off route, and look for a bar. There turned out to be a really nice restaurant here, all nicely set up for a big lunch crowd. They had an excellent menu but it really was too early, we were both tempted though :) We got a hot drink instead, waited for the rain to abate and then continued on.
The next town, Cologne, was rated as a one star town so we expected it to have something of interest. There were several hills along the way so it took a while but we got there in due course. The town has a moat! It is a Bastide town and was presumably fully walled at one time. There was a large covered area in the middle of the town square which we assume has the town market in it. We found a nice restaurant, there appeared to be two, and we both had one of the specialities, a fried duck breast with salad and chips. It was very tasty, almost like steak. Paul refused dessert but I tried a cup of prunes in sauce, very tasty (hopefully no ill effects). Oh, I also had an aperitif, a Kir Gascone, basically a Kir but with Armagnac added to it as well!
After an appropriate amount of time :) we continued on. Just as we left it started to rain, so we had to stop for Paul to put his jacket on. Lucky for him that he did because we had a downhill just after that and there was a cyclonic Arctic wind blowing up the hill, I didn't need to break at all on the short descent. Not long after we turned off and headed off to Gimont. There was a climb for a few K's and then rolling hills all the way to the town. Finally, at about 3.30 and after 78 K's, we arrived. So much for an easy day. We went immediately to a Logis de France, the first place we saw, and got a room. After showering we were watching the Tour of Poland on Eurosport, they were almost finished and I fell asleep!
After a rest and some TV we walked into town in search of food. Of course it is Sunday and almost everything is shut :( We ended up walking quite a long way, finding only one descent restaurant. But we are not that hungry after lunch and another 30 Euro each for dinner seems a bit excessive. We walked back into town and had pizza with Rose and followed by two scoops of Sorbet. Cheap and pleasant.
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