France by Bicycle | PART 19: ON TO THE MEDITERRANEAN

This chapter begins with waking up in the most comfortable bed on our trip, thanks to Katheryn, our excellent host at Maison d’hôtes ÔVillage. A great conversation with our host and we are off to the Mediterranean, through delightful scenery on quiet roads, on and off along the Canal du Midi, and through the lovely city of Béziers over the Pont Canal du l’Orb. We enter the city of Agde, busy and touristy, but continue on to the shoreline where our room awaits us, la Hotel La Grande Conque, with sublime ocean views and exceptionally kind hosts. We take a walk to find dinner, and walk back to our room along the ocean, under a full moon. Another – yes another! – day in paradise!

Here’s the link for Katherine’s place in Ouveillan, in case you’re interested:
https://www.ovillagebnb.com/en

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href=”https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/81716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-comedy-short-version”Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“https://www.pond5.com/”Pond5/a

Watercolor Motion 1 – Trevor Kowalski
Epidemic Sound

You Might Learn to Fly – Soloman Elwes
Epidemic Sound

The Touch – So Vea
Epidemic Sound

You Wanna Go – Nickolas Jones
Epidemic Sound

There’s Herman enjoying the Mediterranean he gets around for a hedgehog Thank you We awoke to a quiet sleepy town until the town Bells reminded us that it was time for everyone to rise that is We headed down for a scrumptious breakfast and spend time with our host katarine a very healthy time you do a good job with it I don’t do anything sometimes I just Add Water but I feed the fish so I have no problem with this location always the plan I’m sorry all

Right well I’m Catherine I’m the owner of the bed and breakfast in a small village called uve young that you discover yesterday and have been here running the bed and breakfast for just one year so it’s a it’s a new activity for me but really I’m sure I met great people like you

Yeah you were my first American couple staying here and I hope you enjoy your stay oh yes it was wonderful just wonderful and we stayed in this lovely room I mean this house is just magnificent and uh she has purchased this house and she’s renovated it all herself and she’s just done a

Beautiful job with impeccable taste and we stayed up in this room called the Shanghai room Kathleen used to live in Shanghai yeah and so it’s decorated with some beautiful relics from the country and it was just such a nice atmosphere and and what brought you to this town

Well actually I discovered this area of France about 20 years ago when my parents came to retire in London originally I was from the luavale and I was really attracted by the natural environment of the region and uh yeah the fact that it’s not too crowded it’s

Very natural it’s not really enjoy so I decided to come here and yeah and and start to start a bed and breakfast without the bed and breakfast yeah fabulous with what three three rooms I have three holes yeah and I I also I want to say I have two

Bicycles so um if anybody wants to come here and uh borrow a bicycle I can do that because I think you agree that it’s a nice place to visit yeah it’s a bicycle indeed it is Catherine there’s also a cycle tourist yeah I really love riding bicycle yeah yeah well our next

You can Instagram so at in town here we have the church bells yeah and so at 10 pm they ring for the last time and then at 7 00 a.m they ring they stop again [Laughter] everybody everybody knows when they should be awake before then it’s silent but once the

Bells ring you can hear the town starting to wake up everything just comes to life it’s it’s really kind of nice yeah yeah it’s a it was a beautiful beautiful Place beautiful stay we just loved it and great breakfast by the way yes good company with other guests and nice

Conversation and I think those on our YouTube channel know Juliana tends to complain about the beds from time to time so this was her favorite food probably on any of the trips we’ve ever been she just welcome back we’re coming back I would definitely recommend this place if you are in this

Area please stop by here it’s well worth your visit and they have a wonderful restaurant across the street nicest people great food I mean the stay has just been so relaxing and and so rejuvenating I just feel like my cup was filled yes thank you so much thank you thank you [Laughter]

Good morning how was your night’s sleep babe fabulous the best bed so far yeah wonderful accommodations that place was Charming yeah yes and uh Catherine was just a lot of fun to talk to very knowledgeable and well traveled yeah a lot of great stories exactly yeah it made it a lot of

Fun yeah makes you want to like host guests you know you think oh that would be kind of fun yes you know I understand it now yeah it’s gonna be a windy day we got some wind going on here it says it’s going to be about 15 miles an hour feels about 15

Now hopefully it won’t be uh pushing into our face too much of the way and I don’t know what our route is exactly how much of it is on the canal or what but it’s gonna be a beautiful day of course it is you can see the windmill

Is turning way off over there but more riding through Vineyards and the Beautiful languid duck Landscapes Let’s Ride Happy trails here’s our road the road stretches on and on today would be our last ride in the canal de dumaire we had written some 350 miles with less than five thousand feet of gain since we began at the mouth of the garage estuary we had fallen in love with the slow pace

Along the canals the overarching trees the sweet honey colored Villages and gentle landscapes but we were ready as always for new Vistas the Azure Waters the Mediterranean were calling us and by day’s end we would enter into a new chapter on our little Adventure Foreign flag of olive Groves here just tried an olive off of one of the trees man was that bitter I don’t know what you do to him but it was not quite ready Boy camut can really find these quiet little routes I mean just this little double track here and you’d never find this without the help of an app and it takes you in a place as you never go The morning brought a dramatic contrast of sunshine and storm clouds with a stout wind added for good measure we bounced along a mix of rough gravel and smooth tarmac through rustic Landscapes and elegant French Countryside Thank you Nice little uphill taking it out of us with this wind but I’ll tell you what after uh a few weeks of riding you know the difference in your strength and your ability night and day just night and day there’s power up this stuff would have been a real struggle before Slow going so far this morning with rough roads and climbs and headwinds but lovely scenery and just a beautiful day we were back on the canal do MIDI and although the track was fairly rough through here it was altogether rideable and along the way we were reminded why

This route is such a charmer for bicycle tourists Yeah I don’t know what kind of berries they are but we keep disturbing the birds all right I love these views in all directions you know just these Rolling Hills and Vineyards and anyway we turn this is beautiful mysterious buildings Cathedrals popping up and Towers Into the bamboo forest So people have asked us you know do you do if you need to eat well this is kind of what we do we just grab some groceries find a flat spot just make a little sandwich and boom you’ve got lunch doesn’t matter where you are just finished lunch

Coming into bezier looks like a cool City but I think we both always feel a little tired after lunch it’s hard to get back into that Groove we have a major lock Center here for the canal do midi a lot happening here more than I can comprehend or explain but you can see

It’s a big pretty big drop here you’ve been seeing that a lot big drops and big deep Lots as well and there’s the city of busier busier busier always say it put a pretty little canal side Trail everything is pretty it is it’s doggone pretty rhymes with the canal the MIDI What a beautiful aqua impressive Cathedral Castle It’s like a bridge over land and keep the level of the canal here’s the ground now is actually extended over that little river and here he’s on along the trail that we’ve been riding actually very cool carries the canal over the river orb and is the longest Aqueduct on the entire

Canal dumagi it was completed in 1858 not old by European standards but it’s one year older than Denver the city we live in to put that in perspective what is this uh is it blocked busting through another deviation it’s been a gray kind of dark afternoon very very windy winds for

Dinner yeah we’re trying to get down to the med trying to get down to uh it’s just a it’s a struggle today but it’s still wonderful writing kind of low energy yeah a little low energy if we got too comfortable last night in the bed but here we go ready for more Here you guys baby hi thank you you’re so precious look at your little peanuts they’re Promenade ponies it’s gorgeous yes beautiful aren’t you you can lick it back on up to me this is my first rodeo And we’re near the Mediterranean we begin to see the vestiges and all the Familiar trappings of a highly touristic region those places that attract vacationers also seem to attract its share of catch but for the most part the trail found quiet ways through as we drew closer to the coast foreign

You know it’s cool because we’re getting close to the uh Mediterranean another one of our goals and kind of a nice little Milestone now the sad thing is we’re leaving a lot of that quiet Countryside behind it’s probably going to be busy for a while I think it’ll be

Quiet again when we head north again yeah when we head north yeah I agree but cool to be in a new part of the country checking out the ocean that’s it’s always fun [Applause] we’re taking our time getting to our hotel we got something pretty darn close to a

Beach I guess tired today a lot of head wind a lot of rough Trails we’re just enjoying the last little bits of this day and just slowly cruising in through the Mediterranean [Applause] Making our last climb of the day through the city of uh and uh at some point we’ll hit a point a peak and drop down to the mid now scooting on down about two more miles before we get to the ocean first official glimpse of the Mediterranean there it is you need it Made it to the Mediterranean here it is not bad not a bad little slice of these Mediterranean Coke this is a room opens up to check oh my God this is awesome I don’t recall having a room with such a spectacular view this is just so fine I’m lucky tonight Lined up nicely there’s Herman enjoying the Mediterranean he gets around for a hedgehog [Applause] all right our little walk for dinner we hope we can find something pretty sure we can so lovely Moon up there lovely lady here life is good we did find a restaurant which was less

Than excellent but on the plus side did have a lovely view of the sea because we’re right on the ocean with our room and we can sleep with her windows open we get to hear this all night ‘s coming in it is you walked back to our hotel along the beach

Under a bright full moon bonjour