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Minerve -Aude, FranceMay 18th and 19th
Rosemary and Peter continued to travel with their bikes to stay with an old friend Pascal Bourgogne in his beautiful house Les Aliberts overlooking the medieval Cite of Minerve.
On Sunday they set off along the gorge of the Cesse and then over the top to race down the hill to Cesseras. At least Peter races ,Rosemary grips the brakes tightly. We had arranged lunch at Le Bel restaurant in Olonzac and after a short detour intended to make sure we did not arrive too early, we sat down to a substantial and delicious Sunday lunch. With difficulty we got back on our bikes and wobbling slightly, headed for Siran. We had been told that a thirteenth century chapel at Les Centeilles was open on Sundays. After a very hot climb up a narrow lane we finally reached it. Not very exciting on the outside, the interior was well worth the visit with marvellous medieval frescoes and a third century mosaic on the floor.
A fast descent back to Cessaras and then on to Azanillet where after 26 miles Rosemary called it a day . Peter gallantly cycled up the steep hillto Minerve to bring the car back down, while she recovered in the shade of the village square.
On Monday looking for a new route they rode over the hill to Aigne. The views both over the Cesse north to Minerve and south to the Pyrenees were spectacular, but the road was rough and very steep in places. The wild flowers growing everywhere, almost looked like someone's favourite rockery with purple orchids, cistus. honeysuckle and thyme forming an ever varying carpet of colour on the road sides. Nightingales sang from the rocky hillsides of bruyere and vineyards. The Minervois is famous for its wines and every little nook and craanny of the hillsides provides a new terroir and another wine experience.
From Aigne an easy ride to Aigues Vives, was somewhat disrupted by the excavation of the whole of the road through Aiges Vives. Traffic lights warned of caution with amber lights but the single carriage way had no red lights at all. A free for all obviously and quite hard with a bike. We were relieved to finally identify the road we needed, after cycling in circles for a while to exit the town. A quiet ride up the valley of the Cessiere to Paguignan and then a stiff climb back over the top to Vilale Nove and a fast downhill stretch into La Caunette. The road to Minerve is too busy and is quite steep, says Peter, it will be much better to go up the lane over the top, and join up with the road we left this morning. In the heat of the day we struggled up the lane, Peter managed to ride but Rosemary only just managed to push herself and the bike over a kilometre and half of very steep hill. Finally the top and an easy descent back to Les Aliberts . Only 12 miles todaybut it seemed a lot further!!
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