We cycled westwards along the French coast from La Grand Motte. The landscape reminds me of Pinocchio´s Land of Toys after all the candy-loving children have been transformed into donkeys. Scattered throughout the sanddunes are abandoned theme parks - roller coasters and quirky play castles. Campgrounds with dedicated waterslide complexes. All for children, all deserted. The paddocks are given over to horses (perhaps French children gone bad?), and the only person we see is a woman searching through shrubbery to find the wheel that has fallen off her trailer. The clouds are gathering as we roll into Sete, which bills itself as the French Venice. At least on Wikipedia. It has a canal, and some pizza restaurants, so I suppose in that respect it is a little like Venice.
As the weather grows worse, we head for Narbonne. From there, we are forced to make a difficult decision. Time on our visa is running out, and we could catch a train straight to Barcelona, then down south to where the weather is warmer and ride there. Or we could spend three days riding into driving rain with cross-winds that threaten to blow us under trucks. Like heroes from cycling legends of old. We debate these options at length. Essentially they boil down to whether we are strong or weak. Finally I declare ´oh sod it - lets just ride. It won´t kill us...´ Matt agrees. It will indeed be fine. We are on the road ten kilometres before Matt stops pedalling, pulls over and says ´Do you want to go to Barcelona today?´ My numb fingers answer before stubborn pride has time to interject. So now, this lily livered pair are enjoying sunny, windless Barcelona. We have spent the day hunting for Roman city walls with Xavi, a Catalan cycle tourist and wonderful guide. He recently returned from a 15 month cycling tour around the world. He arrived in Placa de Catalunya to find hundreds of friends, family and followers waiting him, and a media scrum. A book deal followed... Matt would like a small string quartet and red carpet. I think I´ll be happy with a friendly hello from the Customs official.
