I woke up a little later this morning- due to not getting to sleep as early as I would normally. There was a very noisy family of whatever the French call chavs. They were annoying everyone and I noticed the early risers around me making no attempt to be quiet this morning!

Anyway, I was still on the road by just after half 8, so that was good.

I rode down to the next town which was only about 3 miles and stopped to pick up my usual croissant and pan-o.

I had bit of an uphill slog for a while, but then had a glorious uninterrupted downhill blast for several miles into Castelnaudary.

It was here that I picked up the Canal du Midi. I don't know if it was just this section, but it was absolutely rubbish! The path was as bad as any canal path I've ever ridden! It really wasn't fun. The canal I followed the other day had mile after mile of smooth tarmac and the CduM is supposed to be the well known one!

Anyway, I endured it for 17 miles and then gave up and got on the road. I don't think I've ever been so pleased to get on tarmac!

I had a really good pace on and after a while I noticed a French guy sneakily sucking my wheel! I guess with the general brick shape of my bike with all my luggage, I was punching a nice hole in the air for him. This went on for a bit, but he did eventually come past and take his turn on the front!

After the fun and games, I arrived in Carcassonne and stopped for lunch, which was  obviously a ham and cheese baguette and a chocolate eclair.

I found my way out of the town and got on the D road that goes all the way to the coast. The wind was really picking up now, which was fine by me as it was going in my direction!

I was absolutely flying. In one one hour stint I'd covered just over 20 miles! I kept this up all the way to Narbonne. For the last 25 miles I would have put in an alright TT time!

I had decided on a campsite, which wasn't too hard to find, so I checked in and got set up.

The ground here is so hard that I've bent a load of tent pegs. I've got so few straight ones left, that I'm going to have to buy some more. I also noticed that another section of the front pole has split, so I will need to repair that tomorrow. Good job I've been lugging the spare pole sections around all this time!

I will probably have a shorter day tomorrow - there are millions of campsites now, so I have loads of choice and don't have to do much planning.

I am currently having dinner. I am obviously photographing each course and will upload the photos later or tomorrow...