Day 12. Espalion to Millau

Beau Regard
From today I left the France en Vélo route to head south, crossing the plateau of the Grandes Causses to get to Millau. I spent a while looking at various possible routes to find one that avoided most main roads, even if it involved climbing up to 1000 metres. 
 
I had noticed another voie verte on an old railway track from Espalion which led up to the plateau, and my hosts recommended me to take this as the main road was tres dangereuse with beaucoup de camions.  It was a beautifully engineered route, climbing for 6 km at a steady 3% gradient with a big viaduct, deep cuttings and a 600 m long tunnel, fortunately equipped with lighting from solar panels. There was no tarmac this time, but the gravel was not too rough apart from one very stony section where I to get off and walk for a while.

I left the railway track by the small village of Banc and then followed minor roads, with a brief pause to watch the numerous raptors (buzzards, red kites and various unidentified eagles) circling overhead, to reach Laissac and a stop for coffee and supplies. 

Now for the main part of the climb, easily at first to the village of Sévérac l’Eglise at 650 m altitude and then much more steeply for 10 km up to the top of the plateau at 1015 m.  According the the chart in the MapMyRide App there were gradients of around 10% which required a few rests but no more GOAPs were needed. 

Today's profile in MapMyRide

The highest point of the trip at just over 1000 m

There was a sign at the top saying Beau Regard and the view was indeed rather fine. I messed around on the top trying to get some photos and then continued down a long gentle downhill past Vézins to a main road which fortunately had little traffic.  This soon crossed the motorway and then gave a fantastic fast descent – smooth wide road, no sharp bends and a great view in front down to the Tarn valley. Down in the valley at Aguessac I crossed the Tarn (the last of the five major rivers) to take a minor road on the east bank into Milllau and my hotel right in the centre of town.

Downhill all the way from here.

Not many cars to share the road with.

The descent to the Tarn valley.

Distance today - 77 km (and 1175 m of ascent)       
Distance from St Malo - 981 km

Day 13. Millau to Gignac

La Partage des Eaux
Today marked two significant milestones - passing the 1000 km mark and crossing the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. I left town and crossed the river Tarn where I got my first view of the Millau Viaduct, an audacious piece of engineering that takes the motorway across the Tarn valley, linking the Grandes Causses plateaux of Sévérac (which I crossed yesterday) and Larzac (which I needed to cross today). One of the bridge pylons is taller than the Eiffel Tower!

Crossing the Tarn at Millau

If cyclists had been allowed to ride across the viaduct it would have saved me a great deal of effort - instead I had to toil up a zigzag road for about 4km at an average gradient of almost 10%. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic and the road surface was very smooth, but I needed several rests (with the excuse of taking photos of the viaduct) before eventually emerging on the plateau by a car park that was very busy with the local parapentistes.

The ascent to the Plateau de Larzac with the Millau Viaduct in the background

Once on the plateau the going was much easier to a coffee stop in the  attractive village of La Cavalerie with its old walled centre, and then I followed the old N9 which was almost empty as a motorway now takes most of the traffic. I turned off at Le Caylar onto minor roads that undulated over the plateau until a small rise and a sign by a ruined building announced the Col du Vent at 703m.

 

La Cavalerie

On the Plateau de Larzac south of Le Caylar

I wondered why this insignificant ascent warranted a sign but the south side was a very different story – 10 km of continuously steep descent with lots of hairpins which I took very gingerly before continuing through the vineyards and across the Hérault river into Gignac.  I got the phone out to look for the hotel only to discover that I had almost ridden past it on the way into town...

Distance today - 87 km (and 1056 m of ascent)        
Distance from St Malo - 1068 km

Day 14. Gignac to Sète

La Venise du Langedoc

After two strenuous days this was an easy ride to finish, first on back roads through the Languedoc vineyards, over a short hill and then to Loupian on the edge of the huge lagoon of the Etang de Thau. As I rolled down towards the end of the journey I was thinking of my friend Ron who died earlier this year, as he was always encouraging his mates to do little challenges like this. I hope he would have approved. 

From Loupian a cycle track led round the edge of the lagoon towards Sète. I had been hoping to see flamingoes or stilts but the wildlife was limited to a few gulls. Nearing Sète the cycle track deteriorated and became hard to follow, requiring a kindly local to show me the way, and then the last stretch into town was a rather inadequate strip on the side of a busy road.

Sète markets itself as the 'Venice of the Languedoc' - there are certainly lots of canals but the buildings are more modern, the church is not quite in the same league as San Marco and the only gondolier is the statue in the photo. 

 

Still, it was a pleasant enough place to finish - I sat by the water eating the lunch that I had bought at a sandwicherie on the way into town before heading to the AirBnB apartment that I had booked. It was up a steep hill! This baseball cap was hanging on the door, and seemed very appropriate.

 

Later I rode out along the corniche cycle path to the west of town in search of a beach for a ceremonial swim in the Med. I found a small cove (in the next photo) that involved a rocky scramble to get down, but was still quite busy in spite of various notices warning that descent was interdit. I swam for a while before pottering back to the apartment for tea and cake.

Unlike the previous Sunday evening in Rochechouart, the town was still busy with no shortage of restaurants by the harbour for a very nice seafood meal and half a bottle of the local Picpoul to celebrate the end of the trip.  

Distance today - 52 km.   Distance from St Malo - 1120 km

Day 15. Sète to Dieppe

Je voyage avec mon vélo

Having arrived on the Med the next problem was to get back by train. The good news was that the SNCF website (or at least the French version) has a tick box (Je voyage avec mon vélo), which allows you to find and book trains that will take assembled bikes. The bad news was that the direct TGV from Sète to Paris via Lyon did not carry bikes, so I was forced to take an InterCities train to Bordeaux and use the new TGV line to Paris on which bikes are allowed.

Booking a train online is easy - you get a message sent to your phone which contains a bar code and serves as your ticket. No need to collect tickets at the station or input a lengthy code into a machine with a flaky touchscreen that you cannot read when the sun is shining.

Bike storage on Intercities train

I had 40 minutes to make the connection at Bordeaux but the guard kept telling us that the train was more and more en retard and we only arrived at Bordeaux with 5 minutes to spare. I made it onto the TGV but by now the espace dedié au vélos was full of cases so I just dumped the bike on top. Of course when we got to Paris everyone tried to retrieve their cases from underneath rather than waiting for me to remove the bike.  

 

On the TGV. The notice on the wall says that this space is reseved for bikes. Or maybe not...

Crossing the Seine on the Pont Alexandre III

The 5km ride across Paris from Montparnasse to St Lazare was not too scary with a few cycle lanes and signs pointing the way. Another Intercities train to Rouen and a local train got me to Dieppe by 7pm, in time for another fish dinner by the harbour before the crossing to Newhaven the next day.