River Tarn to Ispagnac

Sunday; Day 19 began since this was like an American Holiday Inn with a buffet breakfast with something I had been missing which was a bowl of granola. The ride up the river must begin with an apology to the French rivers. Up until now as  I said, they were in the low flatlands and brown and dirty. The Tarn was different and became more so as I travelled upstream. It was clear and very clean with a railroad running parallel up the other side.

At first in a wide valley it became more narrow as I went upstream. With lots of swimming and rafting.

There were cliffs along she sides that became steeper as we went up the gorge and sometimes built into the cliffs were old castles and chalets.

As the canyon I was in got smaller, there were about a dozen or more times when the road was carved through the rock.

..... and many beautiful old villages ......

........ but always the River Tarn, down there somewhere.

The day was getting and hot and when I was within 20 miles of my next nights stay, booked in a hotel in Ispagnac, I stopped for a swim.

I met a group of men and women from a running club in Paris who had come to this area for the weekend together for a half marathon race. They were a lot of fun and friendly and as with most young French wanted to hear about America and with this group talk politics. Thankfully I had President Obama to talk about and not Mitt Romney.

I had a great ride in the late afternoon.

 And a nice room at a hotel in town.

Dinner was quiet although I met a guy who had a much longer commitment to his beard than I will ever have .....

...... way down past his waist!