Distance: 107.0 km
Ride time: 5:53:30
Average: 18.2 km/h
Max speed: 39.2 km/h
Total: 55851 km
There are two ways to get from Beziers to Montpellier. One would be the more direct inland route, the other option being the coastal route. I’m glad we aimed for the coast!
Before we reached the coast for a happy reunion with the Mediterranean we found the Canal du Midi cycling route. As the name suggests the cycling path follows one of the famous canals of France. It was great cycling away from the crazy local drivers.
At a café we got to talk to a group of elderly cyclists who were doing a week long trip along the canal. A happy bunch with plenty of questions, especially as they heard about the trip around the world – “les jeunes, les jeunes” was their response to the whole story.
We managed to loose and find the cycling route a couple of times during the day, eventually ending up at the beach. It was indeed a happy reunion with the Mediterranean – our travel companion which I first met in Tunisia and since have been following through Morocco and Spain. The sea was just as blue and beautiful as we had left it in Tarragona a week ago.
After a picnic and a swim in the sea we followed a branch system of canals towards the city center of Montpellier. For a week our goal had been to arrive at this old Mediterranean city which would be the last stop for Manon – at least until we catch up again in The Netherlands in a couple of weeks.
What a way to finish this cycling Odyssey, sharing the last part of the adventure with someone you love. I hadn’t seen it coming, but now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Through warmshowers.org we got in contact with Joël, a HR specialist from Orange who had offered us a bed in his nice apartment just outside of the city center. We arrived pretty tired after a week of cycling over the Pyrenees, but Joël’s French style cooking soon meant we were re-energized again.
On our rest day we enjoyed a walk around the city center. With the beaches we passed yesterday and the true Mediterranean atmosphere in the old streets, this was yet another place one could easily live. I’m pretty sure we will be back.
Not only was Joël helping us out with a place to stay, he also sorted things out with the bus that Manon was going to take back to the Netherlands. In the beginning the company flat out refused to bring a bike, but some long discussions at the bus terminal a midnight, everything finally worked out. A somehow stressful ending to an otherwise incredible month and a half on the road – the bus finally left Montpellier with Manon and her bike.
For the next two weeks Cycling the Globe will return to a solo adventure.
🙂