BACK IN THE SADDLE AT LAST
May 6 and
7, 2007
We
woke up
on Sunday to some
nice sunshine. The wind is still
roaring at 65mph (no exaggerating here!) but we decided that it was
time to set
up the bikes and start training.
After
breakfast we set off
to find a sheltered valley where we could ride our bikes.
We went back to the pretty valley we found a
few days ago, tested the wind and decided it was tolerable, and we rode
our
bikes from Vingrau to Tautavel. This
was not much of a challenging ride, but we have not been on our bikes
for
several weeks, so it was just good to start.
In
Tautavel we went to the
very interesting European Center of Prehistory and there learned all
about the
Tautavel Man. This refers to a
discovery of prehistoric human bones made by archeologists in a cave
near the
town of Tautavel.
The cave
is situated on a
bluff overlooking the Verdouble River. It
has been used for several million years. The
bones discovered are estimated to be 450,000 years old
and may
be the link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.
The museum
display included
an audioguide in English and was very interesting.
It included information on how the cave developed, the
evolution
of man beginning with the creation of our universe, video
presentations,
re-enactments of the life this person may have lived, displays of tools
and
animals and a representation of the skull itself. We
spent several hours there.
On
our
ride back to Vingrau
we stopped at the gorge where the cave is located.
The river runs through a narrow pass between two steep red
cliffs. High above the river we could
see the opening to the cave.
When we
returned to our car
Don decided to continue riding up the hill and I met him at the turnoff
to
Opoul. I think he was very happy to be
riding again.
That
evening we watch the
election returns as Sarkosky defeated Royal with 53% of the vote
against her
47%.
The next
day we had another
blustery day and decided to try another valley in hopes of a ride
without too
much wind.
We headed
out to the Padern
Gorges and on the way we stopped off at Queribus, another of the
numerous
cliff-top fortress-chateaux, which are frequent along this one-time
Spanish-French border.
Queribus
sits high up on a
narrow, jagged peak. We drove up to the
base of the cliff and got our audio guide at the office.
Our “guide” was the fictional Capitaine
Alban who accompanied us on the trek up the mountain.
As we mounted the steep trail and stairs the history of
the
castle, dating from 1027, was reviewed and the various defenses and
rooms
approaching the castle were described. As
we continued up and up the stairs the wind 
was
blowing
with such
force that we had to hang on to ropes and literally pull ourselves up
the
stairs and around the corner through the gatehouse.
We rested there in a sheltered spot for a minute before
continuing up more stairs, through more strong wind and into the center
of the
castle. During the tour of the main
castle we heard about the history, how the castle had changed hands
from Spain
to France several times, and the uses of the various rooms, and viewed
the
stunning vistas of snow-capped Pyrenees, lush, green valleys and nearby
castles
on other mountaintops.
After
battling the wind back
down the steep stairway Don and I agreed that we are very happy to be
living in
2007 and not 1007.
Our next
mission was to find
lunch, since we decided to make our main meal at midday instead of
night. We first went to Cucugnan where we
saw no
open café, then to Padern where 
the
dismal little Sport
Café didn’t appeal to
me and then to Tuchan where we finally found an auberge serving a
3-course
lunch of assorted salads and cold cuts, a hot dish, wine and dessert
for 13
euros. We chowed down and then returned
to Padern to park the car and head out along the river.
The wind wasn’t too strong here and we
enjoyed our ride along a gently inclining route through a green gash in
the
mountains.
