Toulouse to Donneville a short day.

Today was a very short day 28Km according to the canal map so we took things nice and slow in the morning with me nipping down to a local shop for our now obligatory fruit, nuts, sandwiches and water.  I retrieved our Velos from the underground car park, dropping the D lock on my left foot in the process, and we loaded up and started on our way down the right bank of the Canal du Midi.  It was busy within the city boundaries and the path was popular with biker, runners and walkers.

Once outside the city we settled down to a steady 9 mph on our first day on the Canal du Midi.  The surface on this part of the Midi are still good and once more we made good time.  We took our time but still reached Donneville well before booking in time.  We spent some time looking for the horse in this one horse town and failing to find it headed to the local football pitch and sat and had lunch and a rest.  

At the appointed hour we made our way to the Motel L’Enclos reception and were given keys and directions to our chalet.

Bikes, baggage bodies.  We headed for the nearest Intermarche and bought food for that days evening meal and the next day’s pedal.  

We ate outside as our clothes dried in the sun.  
Stats. 13 miles

Time 1:26:32

Climb 10 feet

Grenade to Tolouse and farewell Canal lateral du Garonne

We woke up feeling fully refreshed and once more took advantage of the bathroom facilities. 

 With a ride of only 20 miles on the agenda we decided to take as long as we could before booking out and if possible leave the bikes and bags whilst we had a look around the Bastide town.

The hotel was in Rue Gambetta one of the main streets in the traditional grid system.  After chatting to the owner and being encouraged to leave our stuff and look around his town we headed out.

We visited the town square which has one of the oldest and largest covered markets in France.  We   also saw the statue of Grenades famous son Robert Marc the 1957 world roller skate champion. 

On our walk around the town we found a fruit stall and bought our supplies for the day. After having a pain au chocolate we headed back to the hotel to pick up our gear and head out on our final day on the Garonne.  Toulouse was our destination for the day.  We were booked into the Kyriad, back to a motel chain only this one promised to be right on the banks of the canal!  After our previous longer days the 20 mile just whistled by and in no time at all we had navigated the final part of the Garrone and had arrived at the meeting point of 3 canals marked by these tunnels.

We headed towards Toulouse centre and the Kyriad hotel.  A rather grumpy receptionist dealt with us and showed us how to access the secure underground car park where we were to store our bikes.  By now we were into a well known routine Bike, baggage and bodies then food!!!  We had arrived earlyish and were not as tired as we had been on previous days so took ourselves out for a walk around the old quarter for sightseeing and food.

We found a street cafe with outside seats in the shade and settled down to peruse the food and drinks menus.  After a while we realised that although the take away part of the business was in full swing no one had approached us to ask what we wanted, then a head appeared and took our order for drinks which duly arrived.  As we sat a demonstration passed by  with hundreds of cyclists.

With no response to our nods and waves from the waiter we headed into the cafe to order food and got the story in the cafe.  The server behind the counter had been the only one to turn up for work and had held the fort alone all day and he just couldn’t be bothered waiting tables and serving the counter.  We chose something “to go”and headed out into the sunshine.  We walked along busy boulevards taking in the sights with no particular plan in mind when bang distracted by the food I somehow managed to tear my flip one of a pair the other being flop.

I hobbled back to the hotel and changed back to proper sandals and we headed out once more.  We headed back to the old quarter and hungry once more had a sandwich and drink at a pavement cafe. 

As the sun set we headed back to the hotel and bed.

 Stats 19.5 miles

Time 2:05:28

Climb 194 feet