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From: “Camping Municipal de Tounal” To: “Camping la Lagune” in Frontignan: 85.5 km
OK, come hell or high water, we’re making it to the Med today! It’s the usual wake up, clean up, head out for breaky up. That being into town again, as our Municipal campground has no bakery, beer or anything else that might come in handy. We GPS our way to the bakery “Patrice Biondi” for breads and travel beers, served up be the most absolutely lovely and bubbly server we’ve met anywhere.
And… We are back to the hot hot bad bad bike trails along the canal… Once again, we are happy to see that roads are just up there over the bank, and hunker our bikes up there for the easier ride…
So some of the time we are on nice, flat, (hot hot hot) asphalt)…
And sometimes back by the canal…
And back on the canal, while we are stuck in the sun, with only the rare tree to shade us, we find that even the boats get to cool off in a tunnel!
So, on and off the canal we go, eventually passing through the ancient town of Béziers. We don’t head into town, but pass along the canal’s set of nine back-to-back Fonseranne locks…
And next to them, the uber-cool Fonserannes Water Slope, which is (was?) an inclined plane-train-kinda thing that was built in the early 1980s, and was to replace the locks with a tug that lifted boats up and down the way. Didn’t work all that well, though, and was discontinued in 2001:
We continue on, take some pics along the way with another group of old bikers (these ones local, though), and cross another canal-bridge…
The day progresses as expected; more trails, canals and stops for happy juice…
And eventually we see signs of the Med… these being the cheesy family entertainment spots just off of the coast…
Yup, we’re getting close! We’re also getting hungry though, so we pull over in Adge, some 5 clicks or so from the coast, to have lunch (pizza with a glob of yummy cheese, and une hamburger…)
Then it’s the home stretch to the coast! This would be an odd short jaunt that took us along kinda-busy streets and also along barely bike-able paths through a nature reserve…
But soon enough we smell the salt and see the sea!
What do you do when you reach a milestone such as this?
From here, it’s a leisurely tootle along the coast, heading to one of the many campgrounds we have identified as potential stops for the night.
We follow a long causeway/breakwater toward Sete, a picturesque town on the water…things are looking pretty!
With plenty of time left in the day we push on further, unfortunately finding that the OTHER side of Sete is a little more…industrial… Ah well, there are still three campgrounds to be found on the other side of town. We figure the scenery will pick up a bit along the way. It does a bit, and we bear off to the next big breakwater/causeway where the campgrounds are located, but only to find that (a) one of the campgrounds doesn’t exist (b) the second (and nicest one) is full full full, and (c) the last one is across the street from a parking lot that is being set up to host a dance party. Hmm. Well, beggars can’t be choosers, and we head in and manage to get the LAST pitch available, which is actually a small cabin. We don’t get to use the cabin though; just the plot that it is on. This is kinda small , so Scott sets up on the ground and I pitch my tent on the cabin’s tiny deck!
We’re a couple blocks from the Med, so we eschew showering (for now) and head down to take a dip!
Not much to say after that. We clean up, hunker down for dinner, and pass by (with dread) the burgeoning rave.
It actually wasn’t bad at all though – our campground was right across the street, but our spot was a ways back from the road and in the cabin section, which blocked a lot of the noise. I suppose the beer, food, and riding all help to fall asleep too. Tomorrow, we will continue along the coast for a while then bid adieu to the Med as we head inland.
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