Ride Day 16—26 Sept 2005—11500 Quillan - Circle

As we’d decided to remain in Quillan two nights and we had hope that the weather would get better, we started off on this circle ride with a wildly threatening sky and happily no panniers.

The day turned out glorious and my wife’s choice of roads was extraordinary. D117, while having too much traffic, was within a beautiful gorge called Défilé de Pierre-Lys.  D107 climbed at mostly gentle grades along a very nice stream and had virtually no traffic. The scenery and views as we slowly climbed to the Plateau de Sault were outstanding as well. And there really was a flat area to justify this being called a plateau. The ride back down from our 896 M high point along D613 and D117 had many spectacular views of the Quillan valley and its surrounding mountains. The descent along D117 that we’d done in the relatively dark and rainy conditions yesterday was a real pleasure today.

Background:My wife and I have been doing self-supported tours in Western Europe (a majority in France) since 1993.  This series of rides covers our 2005 2 month route through parts of France.  Our beginning and ending point is near Chaduri (south of Angoulême) where our friends have a farm with Gites and Chambres d'Hotes.We rode our Dawes touring bicycles purchased in 1993 heavily loaded with 700Cx32 tires.  All of our riding was on paved roads, mostly with very little traffic.If any questions, feel free to email me at jeffkadet@netdiving.comJeff