Having only seen the Lac de St. Ferreol from the hill-top, we decided to drive there this morning and then have a stroll and our picnic lunch. Knowing that it could get very busy, it being a holiday, we parked up in one of the smaller areas at the far end of the lake to the main attractions of restaurants, boating etc. This was a wise move as it filled up very quickly and soon cars were parking all along the approach road as well.
We chilled out for most of the morning there, watching the bird life and the boats on the lake - this was the view from my dozing-spot!
Then we were heading for our next destination - St.-Pons-de-Thomieres to the east of Mazamet. Looking at the map, it seems we are going around in circles - the reason being that we changed our plan by going to Soreze and we had already booked St.-Pons before we left home, so when we leave here on Friday, we shall be going back through Mazamet! No problem, of course, because this part of the Haut-Languedoc is so beautiful.
Wednesday 16th August
Neighbours on the campsite had told us the the bike ride we were planning was going to be fairly hard work going west. That's because the Voie Verte, the Passapais, that passes by here, is an old railway line that gently climbs between Bedarieux and Mazamet. We only went around 6 miles to the next village, Courniou-les-Grottes,
where we had a look round the museum, but decided against visiting the cave as we've been to several similar grottes in France. It was interesting to find out about the various mineral formations and see fossils and bones found in this area. This is the skeleton of a bear, from around 30,000 million years ago!
The ride back to St.-Pons was a piece of cake - we free-wheeled all the way! But it wasn't without disaster as at one point, where the track took a very steep turn down to a tunnel under the main road, John took a tumble! I followed up to find him in a heap - but don't worry, nothing in his rucksack got too squashed or broken! Good job he'd already eaten his banana!
Wizzing through the tunnels was more fun on the way back - a short one
a long one (the lights came on as we went along)
and a low one.
A dip in the pool rounded off another great day.
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