Wednesday 14th May - Mirepeisset to Marseillan Plage - Club Med 50-51

This was to be our final day on the Canal du Midi proper (in parts). En route to Beziers we linked with the canal a few times but also took advantage of some swifter and smoother road options to keep progress moving along.

Approaching Beziers we linked more fully just before its fabled Nine Locks. Now we all know that guide book writers need to inject some hyperbole along the way (how else would their toil be recompensed) but a 'great wonder' of the canal might be stretching it a little. Very fine, relatively impressing but, certainly nothing that Foxton Locks couldn't knock into a cocked hat (and have a couple of pubs up its sleeve to boot!)
Branch out UNESCO! 

Heard our second "he's loaded" comment of the trip from a British tourist; how some people can read blood/alcohol levels at a distance I'll never know - I was certain the bottle of Pastis had gone down un-noticed at breakfast!

Largely great riding through to the Med from Beziers save for those moments when obstacles conspired to put back muscles out!

Reaching the Med has felt like one of the biggest milestones of the journey - close to home but with a few of the toughest days yet to come. There was a certain mathematical symmetry with our campsite location; 50m from the sea and 50 miles from anywhere that you could get a tent peg in the ground!

We took the little liberty of toasting ourselves on the beach ;-)