Toulouse

Allo,

So here we are in Toulouse. 2230 kilometres, seven flats, five of which have all appeared in the obviously not of the highest quality tyres of Océanne's trailer and a very happy family chilling out with Dorothée's parents in France's 4th city. We could be here a while actually, people need to see us, photos need to be uploaded, e-mails need to be written, expedition quality tyres need to be bought; hopefully they exist and camping mattress's are awaiting delivery from our good friends, MEC in Canada. Strangely but not altogether unexpected was the failure of my mattress as well as Océanne's, same model but MEC have kindly offered to send replacements free of charge. I think it is actually a known problem! I need a new rear tyre as well. This is all not interesting news at all just an insight into the tiny day to day issues and material problems that we have. Both our bikes, well designed touring machines that they are, with the help of quite a few patches are running really well and l have been able to fix all niggles, noises and such with the equipment that we carry.

And now to the weather. Apart from an unbelievably wet day after l sent the last e-mail, the weather has been really kind. It was starting to get quite cold while we were still north of the Loire and then we had a below zeo night at Villefranche sur Cher where it wasn't great to wake up with a hard, cold and flat mattress which MEC definetly heard about. Dorothée has been very comfortable during this time as she is the proud owner of a genuine therm-a-rest mattress which Océanne and l will also soon recieve. Made in the U.S.A. We just love our American cousins, makers of quality products.

Along our way from Pont de l'Arche we have crossed the Loire a little west of Orléans via Chartres and headed to the Massif Central and Clermont Ferrand by Issoudun and Montluçon. There was a slight detour from Riom, a beautiful city that l believe is built from granite before heading up to Volvic, famous for it's water. We battled up 12% grades in huge headwinds past the very pretty village before camping next to a source that is locally known, no made up jokes here, to be more pure than the source of volvic itself. We obviously drank aplenty! We spent a few days in and around Clermont Ferrand visiting friends of Dorothée as this was where she was born and spent a lot of her childhood, before heading up into the mountains, actually dormant volcanoes of Auvergne and quite a few moutain passes, one of which reached 1451 metres. This was the locally well known Col de Croix de St Robert in the shadow of the massif's highest mountain, le Puy de Sancy. A couple of days before l had wanted to ride the road to the top of the Puy de Dome but was stopped in my tracks by a ban against bikes keeping the road just for cars. Not very good for the environment one thinks but better for the local economy instead as there is a significant toll. The sun was shining during all our time in the mountains, a true Indian summer reaching over 20 degrees at it's highest. I was in my t-shirt. It's a really beautiful area with lots of big hills and considering l was carrying an extra huge amount of food at this time, l have apart from the last three days before Toulouse when we were all fatigued got used to carrying big weights. The days after Dorothée has visited the supermarket can be tough but l get myself ready for it nowadays. She doesen't hold back and l suppose it is good to have a well balanced diet with lunches that often spread to five courses. This is not what l'm used to, eating not much and not very varied was the norm but it is true that as we eat pasta every night and as we have a growing child we should at least make an effort to have huge and very interesting breakfast and lunches. It still is a lot though. It is very impressive seeing all that food get organised into one of my sacks with the rest including a selection of Auvergne cheeses going into the back of Océanne's trailer. I will take a picture next time!

Heading south we passed over the Plateau d'Aubrac by St Flour to Marvejols staying at around 1000 metres and often climbing with a strong wind in our faces. We thought we were tired but actually it was just HARD! This was often tough and slow riding for a couple of days in really wild and beautiful landscape. We then descended steeply into the Gorges du Tarn, a really deep, long and impressive valley, l took tons of photos and then we spent another freezing night with my good friend, the flat sleeping mattress. I exaggerate greatly as when we camp and this was the only other below zero night that we've had, we sleep for 12 hours as it gets dark very early and we have really good sleeping bags, a very good MEC product this time even though it's MADE IN CHINA. It starts to get dark at 5 p.m. so we have to start to look for places to camp or stay at around 4.30 p.m. This has been the same issue since we started in Scotland and will be until around the end of the February. It is the big restricting factor in what distance we can achieve but you can't control the sun can you. After leaving the gorge we headed to Toulouse via St Affrique and Albi following the river Tarn a lot of the way. There was an amazing part of the route from Broquiès to Albi which had replaced the route of an old railway and passed through some really long and dark tunnels, one of which was a kilometre long and the weather was again beautiful. At this time we wanted to get to Toulouse so managed some record breaking distances namely over 86 kilometres for two consecutive days to surprise Dorothée's parents by 24 hours and arrive slightly in the dark.

It's true also that we haven't camped all the way. We stayed in a niceish hotel in Anet after our big day in the rain because we were a bit bored and also in Issoudun to do some washing followed by a night in our favourite cheap one, Formule 1 in Montluçon. Then there was an old fashioned room in St Flour with Mr Miserable Manager and the pretty small room after the end of day rain shower and big climbs in Ispagnac. We then had a really chic room in St Affrique and dinner for my belated birthday because we lost control a bit and then had Formule 1 again in Albi or F1 as it has now been renamed and refurbished as it was when we shipped into the one in Clermont Ferrand.

Even with all these soft nights in hotels, camping has still been our principle form of sleep. The night we camped in a field before Riom after a 7 km climb was stunning even though we had blazing wind all night as l insisted on waking up to a great view and spilt most of the pasta while l was cooking under the stars. We have also been welcomed into friends houses such as at Pont du Chateau and Chabanne with Pierrette and Gilles and at Chavaroux with Cecile and Lilion where l even got to play darts and drink pastis and beer. I felt amazingly at home at these places and we thank you very much for your kind welcome. We also had another night in a caravan, actually this one was a mobile home just before the village of Aumont Aubrac. It wasn't heated or anything but was kindly offered by a kind couple while l was asking for our very important supply of evening's water. Not a very important fact but l believe it had been brought from England as it had British style electricity outlets. Oh so interesting. It was great to sleep in though as we were again at over 1000 metres and it blew a gale during the night as well as raining a bit. It was really very cosy in our super sleeping bags and Océanne was able to spend time with the chickens and ducks the next morning and l was given the gift of fresh eggs which l duly fried in the following days.

Océanne during all this time is growing up very fast. We take time to go to playgrounds, to stop biking sometimes and she has time to interact with other children such as Arthur and Theo of Cecile and Lilion fame as well as the child at the mobile home whose name escapes me right at this moment. We are in full toilet training at the moment. We carry her own little plastic bowl but it's not the easiest thing to do on the move. Even if it's cold and we're outside she'll go on it after lunch and have a go. She's getting better and better in all cases.

I have discovered so much of France that l never knew. Chartres l knew but got to know more as a really charming city and also went down the pub, this time just Océanne and myself. St Flour, the town on the tower of basalt and Bess and Montluçon, two medieval centres all grabbed me as great places. I went down the pub again in St Flour, alone this time which was nice for me to take a bit of time for myself. Dorothée is very well, pedalling always and relaxing a bit more l think, although she is still often frustrated at not being able to contact and share with everyone as much as she would like. I somehow manage it, right now because we are not at my own parents place therefore have more time to hide away on the computer!

All my good love, Rupert.