Wendy had us booked into an old style hotel full of charm, old paintings and fancy ceilings. What it didn’t appear to have was any other guests. It’s Sunday and it’s closed. Since we booked on Booking.com we were able to check in by phoning when we arrived outside. The door was unlocked for us and we were shown in. It was explained to us that there is no staff on Sunday and Mondays, just him. Turned out we did see a couple of other guests coming and going, but it was very quiet and comfortable.
Don’t think this town is a place tourists bother with. Seemed fairly scuzzy to us, especially in the closest plaza to our hotel. But we had coffee outside there and enjoyed watching all the comings and goings around us and the place was beautiful and green with this very interesting decoration which I loved.
We had the best dinner yet at a restaurant that had been suggested to us by a server at the bar we stopped at for a cold drink on our way into town. The restaurant was called Les Bains Douches which seemed like an odd name for a place to eat but it was excellent. We sat right along the edge of the little canal that runs through town so we could watch the ducks floating down and then trying to swim back upstream against the fast moving water while we ate. A lovely setting.
My entree was an amazing gazpacho soup with a scoop of basil ice cream. First time I have ever had that, apparently the chef’s creation. Wendy had pressé du canard with the same basil ice cream. I followed this with roast veal in an onion sauce while Wendy had escalope de dinde (turkey) in a mustard sauce. Dessert was a chocolate mousse with chocolate ice cream. With a bottle of the local red wine Corbieres “La Demoiselle” – THE best meal in along time!
We spent Monday planning the rest of our trip. We have decided to move on to Plan B because the next part of this walk becomes much hillier and the stages longer with limited accommodation available to easily break it up. We enjoy being able to stop for a coffee or lunch and even have a choice for dinner at night. That has not been the case so far on this walk. So we have picked a few places we really have wanted to see in this part of France and will try and stay a few days in each. Love to see new places and have some new adventures. On Tuesday we will take the train to Toulouse for 3 nights, then up to Albi for 5 nights in a little apartment. We are both happy that we were able to hike for 6 days and get to know a part of the Voie de Piémont. It was wonderful to walk along and see the Pyrénées silhouetted on our left, and to go by the fields of sunflowers, corn, or beautifully ploughing hillsides, and see the local vineyards.
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