The Comments facility of this site seem to have completely frozen now so I am adding a new post to add my thoughts to those of others.
Looking at Clyde's initial proposals for routes and overnight stops I concur fully as far as Toulouse. This city has 5 F1 Hotels and,as far as I can see, 2 of them are almost on the "Chemin d'halage". These are Hotel Toulouse l'Union and Hotel Toulouse Ramonville. I would be happy to book on our behalf if agreed on 19th.
As our basic remit is "Coast to Coast" I am wondering if we need to go as far east as Sete. There are Plages in the Narbonne area and either side of Beziers. I am familiar with that at Portiragne, east of Beziers, and I note there is a greenway mentioned in the AF3V website. There is also a HotelF1 at Beziers, albeit in the NE quarter a little way from the Canal (but on the Airport side, if that becomes a significant factor). On a personal note, my friends from my working days live only 14km from Beziers and it would be a shame to be so close and not meet them.
At a guess this could reduce the distance after Toulouse from its current 257 to about 225 to 230, spread over 3 days. The AF3V website and a (1998) book I have both suggest the towpath deteriorates after Avignionet Lauragais, a few kms short of Castelnaudary, and finishes after Bram, 15km beyond Castelnaudary but still some 25km short of Carcassonne. We may have to be ready to do some roadwork and I do wonder if the Toulouse to Carcassonne target may be stretching us to the point where we have insufficient opportunity to indulge in the local cuisine (Cassoulet, in particular). Unfortunately, there seems to be very little accomodation between the two "C"s. A possibility may be to stop at Castelnaudary and then Trebes, just a few km beyond Carcassone. This would make distances of about 65km and 50km which should allow stopping time at both venues. The Canal starts to wander a lot more after Trebes and I know that the towpath approaching Beziers from the west is poor so maybe we could do Trebes to the staircase locks at Beziers on-road which might cut the distance to around 100 to 110km. From Beziers there is the possibility of a flight back to GB, or a train to either Montpellier where there is a TGV service to Paris and an airport served by Ryanair or there is alternatively a train back to Carcassonne for the airport there.
Please give this your consideration.
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ReplyDeleteThis is as much to see if I can now add a comment as for any other reason! You have given us a lot to think about, Peter. You are right about the other canal, which passes thru Narbonne (le Canal de la Robine) and comes out to sea at Port-La-Nouvelle. I've done bits of the main canal between Carcassonne and Beziers, and I know that Maldwyn has also, but personally I'd like to finish this to at least as far as Agde; I agree that Sète is not so important. It may be that we will end up doing different things towards the end of our route. You needn't worry about the state of the towpath. It is true that from shortly after Toulouse it does not count as voie verte on the AF3V website, but Julien Savary, the webmaster of that site has written a book about cycling the entire route (you've all seen it). And I can vouch for the surface being fine for the most part (at least as good as the Mickleover GW!), altho it goes onto road alogside the canal from time to time. Julien is wanting to meet us in Toulouse, BTW. Finally, the mobil-home at St Symphorien is reserved. It will be 14 euros each inc sheets. All I have to do is write again a month before the ride.
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