We stop for a cool drink and map check at Meilan, with it's imposing Hotel de Ville.
We are hosted tonight on a farm, where Farmer Thierry is away in Norway, but has arranged for us to use the yurt on his farm for the night. We were expecting just a large tent affair but it is a really big room.
We sit on the steps on the evening with both doors wide open for a cool breeze as is has been a very sultry day. Further up the meadow are a flock of free range Rhode Island Red chickens. Nightingales, crickets and frogs are the evening chorus.
We set out Thursday morning at 6.30 to have some of the day out of the heat, and are rewarded with close encounters with hares and deer, feeding on the young sunflower crop and a red squirrel. A lot of hills soon have us overheating, though, and by midday we need our stop at Mauvezin. In the deep shade of their enormous ancient Halle we sit, people watching in the central square. The small shops shut and the locals take refuge in the 2 cafés under the shade of ancient stone colonnades. We route plan and rest til 1.30 then back into the heat for just 2 more up and downs into valleys before following a tributary of the Garonne to the great river itself near Montauban. We know our way here as we are revisiting WS hosts AnneMarie and Yvon, who we first met last year. Two miles to go, 78 miles down, and a puncture on the rough canal tow path that won't take even enough air to get us there. Yvon is brilliant and comes to the rescue in his van. It is fantastic to stay with them again, catching up on journeys taken, whilst eating Anne-Marie's fabulous home-cooked dishes, rounded off with a cream cheesecake "de paradis".
Miles to date:- 1923
Location:Argeles-Gazost to Monteban
