No pictures from the first leg of the day as it was strictly business. Well, as strict as friends saying “yeah yeah, we got the bbq ready, show up whenever for lunch”.
Still jet lagged (or lazy, one of the two) I opted to sleep in and head for Toulouse via the main road. Quick-ish, but not as lame as the Autoroute.

Sounds boring? I thought It would be as well! Turned out there was a classic car rally underway, so I spent half of the trip watching a gentleman rip through roundabouts in a 30s Delage, overtaking Bugattis 35 and Rolls Phantoms II. Many nice cars. Everyone was having a good time.
I then took a wrong turn, turned out to be a very pretty departementale lined with centuries old tree and the Canal du Midi. And it still got me where I wanted to be.

Lunch was had. Toulouse sausage on the barbecue … can’t go wrong with that! Watched a bit of the F1 Grand Prix too. Enough to laugh at Schumi having a good look at the sky and splattering the nose of his car in the guardrail. Ah! No bike 24h of Le Mans could be found on the television though.

Next leg was the interesting one. Going back to Carcassonne via St Girons and the mountainy bits. Which turned out not all that mountainy.

However they have flying deer. The sign is pretty clear on the matter.

Going into St Girons is a beautiful beautiful beautiful small road going up and down hills that reminded me of Tuscany. That’s a compliment, in case you weren’t sure.

At some point, I again had the rear end step out for no good reason. I’ll say it again, I hate the Michelin Power Pure. I was poking around some very mild twisties and it just slid out, not by much but enough to ensure I’d be taking a very slow pace the rest of the day questioning its integrity and grip. I’m on holiday goddamit, not out there to break stuff! What a shit tire, I’m tempted to do burn it out once and for all before I crash for real.
Anyways. I digress.

Once in town, I headed full steam on the correct road … in the wrong direction. Only took me 30min to realize nothing matched. Ahem. Turn around. It was pretty though.

Back on the right track, I was soon headed up the Col de Port, the highest I’d be going today at 1250m. As usual the road is narrow and technical, with views of deep valleys at every turn. I’m liking this.

And there was no better place to tick over 15,000km on the odometer. Yeah. I stopped just as the odometer displayed 15,000 and took pictures. That’s a random spot on the road. And that’s how nice a random spot looks.

I also stopped at the top. The view was awesome, only enhanced by early evening sunlight.
I was very amused by the cows, until one looked at me. I ran for my life.

As it was getting late in the day, I pretty much dashed for Carcassonne. Got home, had dinner, took a shower. Nothing special there. Move along.

Next up … err, I don’t know. Still want more mountainier scenery. Might head to Andorra soon, as it’s still 30 degrees at sea level.