Today is my birthday and Marion has a special dinner planned for me!
We had a marvelous ride up Col De Pailheres 2001m ('pie-air') .. The sun shone all the way up and we had fabulous views of the valleys and mountain peaks at the top!
We thought we would continue down the far side and make a loop of it but the road was closed at a bridge 10km down and there was some suggestion by a trucker that we could get around it by taking a hiking trail .. We decided to turn around and make it a 40km ride with a 1250m descent! It was cold coming down (16deg at bottom .. Must have been 14 at top!).
At the bottom we bought pastries and food for dinner and planned our next 4 days ..
We are going to take the train tomorrow to Pamiers and then ride 50km to Castelnaudary (on the midi canal) and do a couple of days of riding in the Montagne Noir and then take the train to Montpelier on the 27th to meet up with Doug and Judy!
I must say it has been a perfect birthday! Many thanks for your good wishes .. And we get to do it all over again on the 1st for Marion!
