We headed off this morning thinking our ride would be a walk in the park..... It turned out to be a tougher day than expected and a few more km's too. It ended up 59km's, the Canal du Midi is a bit confusing at times and no signage!! Seems weird as it is a lot busier with all a cyclist out of Toulouse. Our stay at Lidotel, a weird looking place was great, The shower was like a capsule with the toilet in there too, everytime Rod went in he said he was getting beamed up it was so funny!!! We slept with the window open and had a makeshift clothesline for all our hand washed biking gear. Breakfast was a great buffet of the usual french stuff.  

The Canal du Midi is beautiful and it twists and turns, much more interesting with beautiful big trees with lots of shade, its seems narrower too than the Garonne. This canal was designed by engineer Pierre-Paul Riquet 1609-1680 and this was motivated by the trade of wheat. At the time of the industrial revolution it linked the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea via the Garronne which is 240km. At one point 12,000 men and even 600 hundred woman to build the midi. Riquet paid particular attention to the architecture of the canal and took great care to make sure that it was suitably bordered by trees and vegetation in harmony with the landscapes.  


 We took a couple of wrong turns but rolled into Castelnaudary home of the Cassoulet about 2.30pm, checked into our little hotel room, showered and felt relief, always good to lie down. We wandered the town, it was Sunday afternoon so everything was shut up tight. We did find a wine cave, WOW down by the canal, what a selection of vino's. They had groovy music playing and it was nice and cool inside so the temptation for a glass of Rose couldn't be resisted, with that onboard I had to go and have a little sleep before our main event tonight.... The Casoulet!!! If was delicious, a caserole cooked in a small earthenware dish, it consists of white beans.... mmm power for the bike tomorrow, canard, sausisse and porc. It was quite salty and probably good for us with all this exercise. We had a great big salad too which was so good as well. With all the energy used up during the day there isn't much left for the evenings so it was a small walk and then off to bed. It was soo hot again, 26 degrees at 9.30pm - summer is really here.