Villefranche-de-Lauragais to Carcassonne (Day 19, I think)

We left, the to be avoided, Villefranche-d-L and set off on the splendid Canal du Midi. The running surface and scenery have been great all the way from Bordeaux and then merde, again. At first we thought we were on the wrong side of the Canal so we turned back. The other side wasn't any better. We ploughed on, ploughing being the operative word as we were trying to cycle through kilometres of thick mud. They have had exceptional rain in the last weeks and it showed. After about 10km we gave up and hit the roads. What a great decision they were flat, straight and with a strong tail wind we were soon averaging 30kph. That's more like it! The bikes were so caked in mud that we had to stop to poke the mud out of the wheel/mudguards, still not good. Then the solution arrived, a car wash. We both dived in and now have working bikes again, see photo. Enough about mud.

Carcassonne & Tourists.
Carcassonne is tourists and a Walt Disney castle with easy flights from Stanstead and Liverpool and elsewhere. To be fair there are 2 sides to Carcassonne the Medieval Castle = Tourists, see photo and an old ~13th century town = Normal. And tonight we are in a reasonable hotel, things are looking up, not for the hotel as our washing is out on the balcony of the front of the hotel, fucking cyclists. We've a great cassolette and we found a live music bar. Also Ian has been attending a couple of weddings again today so it's obviously Saturday.

I should say that despite Villefranche-d-L being bad we did manage to get a great wood fired pizza last night.

I also managed to upset an English couple on the canal. They asked where we had come from etc. Conversation ensued in which I stated we'd just been via an awful town with a crap hotel (Villefranche-d-L) only to find they had a house there..... Exit canal bank adroite.

ps Girl's I don't feel black cling film tights will ever catch on.
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