We managed to struggle out of bed about 8am, to be greeted by a bright warm morning. Helen did a short but painful run/walk. I did a bit longer, completing an ascent of Le Bascillon (549m) which very steep in places and therefore necessitated a fair amount of walking as well as running. I was out for 52 minutes.
We had a late breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We did the 106 miles to Marvejols in about 2 hours, including a refuelling stop. There was a lot more traffic on the motorway today, presumably because it was Saturday, but very little of it was British. We had lunch – sandwich and a salad – in the town square, sitting in 26 degrees of glorious sunshine.
We then went to collect our numbers for tomorrow’s Marvjols-Mende race. Fortunately they were waiting for us in Marvejols, which saved us a 50km round trip to Mende. We were very glad to discover that Helen could transfer her registration from the run to the walk (necessitated by her ongoing hip injury). It was only at this point that we appreciated the scale of the race – la légende; there were over 3500 runners and 30 different countries represented.
Our mission accomplished, we drove to Laguiole, which was about 50km away, bringing our total mileage driven in the day to 140. We checked into our hotel, which like the rest of the surrounding area seem to exist mainly for skiing. The room itself was spacious, with a small balcony- three stars. The shower was good but was positioned at waist height rather than head height, so that only got two stars. The bed was capacious, comfortable and seemed not to creak, so that got three stars.
We did a quick tour of the village and had a Leffe each at the bar. We then came back to the room and Helen went swimming. We then went out to dinner. Things did not get off to a good start when Helen walked into a lamp post. However, when she had recovered from the initial shock, we went out to one of the local restaurants. We were a bit surprised to find that the local cuisine is dominated by red meat, particularly beef served up in huge quantities, and a local dish called aligot. This we eventually discovered is potatoes pureed with cream and a local cheese which gives it the consistency of melted mozzarella. Though we avoided this, we did manage to have the best meal of the trip so far, a local version of lamb shank in my case…
We then went back to the hotel for a quick beer and then off to bed. Tomorrow we have to be up at five o’clock to ensure Helen gets to the start of the walk in time..
We had a late breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We did the 106 miles to Marvejols in about 2 hours, including a refuelling stop. There was a lot more traffic on the motorway today, presumably because it was Saturday, but very little of it was British. We had lunch – sandwich and a salad – in the town square, sitting in 26 degrees of glorious sunshine.
We then went to collect our numbers for tomorrow’s Marvjols-Mende race. Fortunately they were waiting for us in Marvejols, which saved us a 50km round trip to Mende. We were very glad to discover that Helen could transfer her registration from the run to the walk (necessitated by her ongoing hip injury). It was only at this point that we appreciated the scale of the race – la légende; there were over 3500 runners and 30 different countries represented.
Our mission accomplished, we drove to Laguiole, which was about 50km away, bringing our total mileage driven in the day to 140. We checked into our hotel, which like the rest of the surrounding area seem to exist mainly for skiing. The room itself was spacious, with a small balcony- three stars. The shower was good but was positioned at waist height rather than head height, so that only got two stars. The bed was capacious, comfortable and seemed not to creak, so that got three stars.
We did a quick tour of the village and had a Leffe each at the bar. We then came back to the room and Helen went swimming. We then went out to dinner. Things did not get off to a good start when Helen walked into a lamp post. However, when she had recovered from the initial shock, we went out to one of the local restaurants. We were a bit surprised to find that the local cuisine is dominated by red meat, particularly beef served up in huge quantities, and a local dish called aligot. This we eventually discovered is potatoes pureed with cream and a local cheese which gives it the consistency of melted mozzarella. Though we avoided this, we did manage to have the best meal of the trip so far, a local version of lamb shank in my case…
We then went back to the hotel for a quick beer and then off to bed. Tomorrow we have to be up at five o’clock to ensure Helen gets to the start of the walk in time..
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