Day 5 Olargues to Sommieres

The hotel in Olargues was in a beautiful old house and the breakfast was as elegant as Joan, the charming Danish owner. Again, it was a challenge to eat enough for the long day ahead without turning into an immobile lump.

I have definitely relaxed which apparently means that the brain cells have gone into hibernation and I’m unable to remember essentials for the bike:
Day 1 - electrolyte tablets
Day 3 - cycling gloves
Day 5 - sun cream 
Tomorrow - hopefully not the bike

I haven’t cycled 88 miles for a while and it wasn’t exactly flat. My sit bones and quadriceps are no longer talking to me.


It was another stunning ride along river gorges and through endless vineyards now in the middle of the  ‘vendange’ (grape harvest).



Lots of gorgeous places for bike photography today.



One road looked vaguely familiar along a river gorge and when I looked at the photos on my phone, I had cycled here in 2018 when we were on a family holiday near Montpellier - here is Neil taking the same photo!

Lunch was at Saint Guilhem-le-Désert, another postcard village, with delicious sandwiches made by the lovely Joan.

There were still 40 miles to go after lunch and it was a very hot pedal up and down the hills. I was very glad to get to a second snack spot for a large Magnum ice cream and Orangina refuel.



The hotel in Sommieres is in a former 19th century railway station with suitably train themed decor.

We walked into the medieval centre of Sommieres for dinner and found a lovely Italian restaurant with outside tables under plane trees full of chattering starlings. I’m still managing to avoid the alcohol, but more ice cream was needed after all that pedalling today.












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