Paris Dakar Stage 9 to Carcassonne

Stage 9 of 60, Day 10 of 71: 99.5 km, 1317m, 4:08, 221 shifts, ave speed 24.1, max speed 64.2

Today was the last stage of a block of four rides from Le Puy-en-Velay to Carcassonne. There were a few drops of rain in the night, and it was cooler than we’re used to in the morning. Breakfast was the usual, plus porridge. Rob shared that because of the terrible earthquake in Morocco a few days ago, we would likely be changing the tour route and skipping Marrakech. But he reassured us we would be going to Dakar in the end. As planned, it’s 50 more stages! We headed out at 8:15, down the steep driveway from the campground. On the main road, the first 300m climb started almost right away.

After the inevitable descent (a really great one, 10 km on silky smooth pavement, speed mostly 50-60+ kph), more than half the group stopped for coffee/drinks. The bakery next door was closed but we all had snacks with us.

Then there was a climb, up over 600m and right at the top Ype was parked with lunch. It was cloudy with rain vaguely threatening. But the few times we had actual rain it was light and didn’t last long. The ride from lunch to Carcassonne was short, only 46 km, and mostly downhill. A bunch of us were cruising together but Wytze put down the hammer about 10 km from town and it was hard to keep up. Daniel flatted and so only three of us arrived together. It was so amazing. I’ve been seeing the photos and wanted to visit for 20 years and LOVED seeing it in person. Even our first view from a few km away was great.

It was raining lightly but camp was not far away. We managed to find it by ignoring the GPS track and lucky guessing. I packed a small backpack with things for a couple of days staying with Beau in an AirBNB. Others were also taking a break from camping. But the campground is pretty nice. Snacks were had, people set up tents, then we discovered that the campground bar was closed until 5:30. I walked my bike with Andrew and Wytze to the Cité de Carcassonne (thanks Wytze for carrying my bike up a ton of stairs). It was relatively crowded but Andrew said there were three times as many people when he was here last.

During this time, Beau had just arrived on the TGV from Paris and was heading over to our AirBNB. I said good-bye and headed down, walking the steep parts from the Cité, then cruising a couple of blocks. As I got to the right number, Beau stepped out, “Hi Dad!” The place is really great and I am so looking forward to spending a couple of relaxing days with him.

After a call from Katie where I got to wish her Happy Birthday on the day, we walked around the modern part of the city, looked at few restaurants and eventually settled on a small but nice looking place called Les Artistes. They had a set menu with two choices for starters and two for the main course. We both had crispy toast with smoked salmon and salad, then I had the vegetarian dinner option, black rice and yummy veggies and Beau had chicken with potatoes. We each had a beer; the choice was blonde or ambre. I went with the ambre and it was a nice but quite sweet fancy French beer. You can see Beau’s “blonde” in the photo. He said his lesson was “If it doesn’t specify exactly which beer you’re getting, order wine.” But beside that, the dinner was just superb and an incredible value. Dessert was a cooked apple each, with cream and sweet sauce. Wow!