Train to Souillac

Almost another rest day today. But not so restful a night. At about 5am the fire alarm went off. It was very loud and it went on and on and on. In the end I went for a walk down the lane until they finally turned it off. Fortunately it was quite cool by then so there was no problem getting back to sleep. No sign of the fire brigade though. As to the day, Paul decided that even though he'd like to we are not going to Lourdes. It is a bit inconvenient and we are running a bit low on time. So instead we are catching a train north from the nearest station rather than in two days time.

Consequently we packed and checkout as soon as they opened, 8 am. Interestingly, when the owner was preparing the bill she had to go to the menu to get the prices and the 1986 Mercurey is now crossed out! So we got the last one, it patiently sat there for 23 years just for us :) A shocking 275 Euro for two nights and dinners, of course more than a third of that on wine and an almost equal amount on food. The accommodation was the smallest component.


We got a pain au raison in town and then rode to Lannemazan which has the nearest train station. There was a map of the region and the town we wanted to go to, Souillac, was listed. Paul got the tickets and then we went and got Paris Brest to celebrate finishing the 100 Col club event and ate it at a bar across the road from the station with a hot drink. By the by, it rained a little bit last night and was quite misty this morning, but it is not even remotely raining now.

The train arrived right on time, we squeezed ourselves on and had a fairly pleasant trip to Toulouse where we had to change trains. When we got there we went out of the station and across the road to have lunch. There was a bike store there too but they didn't do repairs, so no luck on the spoke today. For lunch we had a plat du jour, Tagliatelli Carbonara. A bit cheesy but light enough given that we have only done 13 K's today. I got a map for the next area and then we caught the next train, no problem on this one as there was a baggage area. After 2 hot but fairly pleasant hours we arrived in Souillac. We went directly into town and checked out the Logis de France. The one we wanted, i.e. cheapest with WiFi, was shut till 4.30 so we went and got a drink and in the end stayed at that hotel instead, about 10 Euro cheaper. The room is quite large but is on the third floor, a bit of a hike.


We went for a walk around town, there is an abbey there and lots of historic buildings. The general houses themselves are rather historic for that matter. We also stopped at a Foie Gras shop and Paul bought a tin of Coq au Vin which we plan to heat up and have with bread for lunch one day. After an hour or so I'd had enough so we went to the restaurant Paul had picked and had an aperitif, Muscat, quite alcoholic really. Then we got the regional menu for 20 Euro, a local version of goose gizzard salad, then a duck cassoulet. They were both very nice. The cassoulet is more of a winter dish and we were both sweating and stuffed by the time we finished it. After that we waddled back to the room for the rest of the night.