Day 20 Florac to Meyruis, vertigo.

Up a cliff in the morning, across a bleak plateau, down a cliff in the afternoon.

Up there smewhere is a narrow bike-path with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet on one side and a vertical cliff on the other, some people like that kind of thing, not me, the switchback road up the cliff-side is scary enough.

Reaching a bleak wide-open plateau in a roaring chilly wind, the gorge on my right occasionally appearing.

For a few kilometers the track is hard going, I’m tired from yesterday’s journey and begin to feel fagged-out and lose concentration.

Thank goodness the track becomes a tarmac road and then it’s miles of meandering across this wide open plain, sometimes against the wind, sometimes with it behind (lovely)

Lots of rose hips up here, butterflies too, some chalk-blues because the surface here is chalk, unlike yesterday’s granite on the other side of the river Tarn.

Then comes the descent back into the gorge, a nice wide road but massive sheer drops on one side, I don’t like these kind of drops, give me the willies, so I don’t take any photos, just concentrate on going down the switchbacks steadily.

In the hotel by 4:30 and showered and asleep by 5:00 p.m. I am feeling the strain of the journey now.

Delicious meal. Half the price of last night’s and twice as good, I won’t bore you with all the details, but … half a liter of local white wine cost 5 Euros, it smelled of honey and jasmine, it tasted like apricots and flintstones.

Cheese, a chevre that was melting on the board, a hard cheese made of cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk mixed. Interesting. A mild cow’s cheese like creamy soft blueish cheshire. I was instructed to eat this before the others, because it was “Doux” by which I think they meant mild, not sweet.

“Pommes criquant” I was worried about, but it turned out to be a proper apple crumble (tiny bit of crumble).

I know you’re curious so, the starter was mushrooms on toast with dried ham and salad, the main course was roasted cod.

Tomorrow I climb from here at the bottom of the Tarn gorge up to the highest point on the whole tour, 1,567 meters, Mount Aigoul, there is a weather station and a weather museum!

Need sleep.