Cycled east from Toulouse on a hot sunny day towards the National Park of the Haut Languedoc.
The countryside was very scenic and the route was the most rolling so far.
Along the way, we stumbled upon the charming hilltop village of Saint-Félix-Lauragais. We got there at around lunchtime and it appeared that the whole village was dining together in the covered market building in the central square. There was Toposcope (Table d'orientation) on the elevated view point from which we could see as far as the eastern Pyrenees.
We arrived at Mazanet at around 4pm and checked into an hotel.
Mazamet was the biggest center of the ''Wool pulling industry'' in Europe. ‘Pulled wool’ is wool recovered from dead sheep - as in sheep raised for their meat (not sheared live sheep). The town made its wealth during the 18th & 19th century, when it was the world center of the wool industry. At its height, the town imported more than 100,000 tonnes of wool annually from the Southern Hemisphere. While the vast majority of Mazamet's wool industry ended in the early 1990s, the town still has a residual high-end leather industry with leather being purchased by a number of Paris & London fashion houses.
Hopefully tomorrow, we’ll be able to find the start of the new cycle path (Le Passa Païs) that will lead us further east and into the National Park…