Day 27 Clermont L’Herault to Pezenas. Nearly there.

Escaping from the traffic hell of Clermont L’Herault took a while, loooking for a bakery I got entangled in the streets of a trading estate, near the motorway junction. Amazing how much commercial activity is generated by a motorway junction. It was really busy, lorries, vans, drivers, loaders, unloaders, looks varied from determined to dissolute to depressed.

Very good bakery serving the busy workers, big rustic baguette and an apple tart.

When I walk or cycle near the M25 it always strikes me how much commercial traffic is constantly rotating on it, that motorway must be one of the best public investments ever made, certainly miles better than HS2.

I’m out of the mountains but it’s still pretty hilly.

From the top of my last big hill, that white line is the Mediterranean, wonder if it’s warm enough to swim?

and looking south-west those very faint mountains on the top right are the Pyrenees, a future trip?

In a hundred years time the guide to the park will say: “These elegant structures were once responsible for generating 20% of Europe’s electricity, most have been destroyed, a loss to our landscape, this group have been carefully preserved for the benefit of future generations” By then solar power from the sahara, transmitted on huge super-cooled undersea cables, will power our continent.

and the medieval streets of Pezenas, full of trinket shops.

Finish the afternoon with a quiet slow beer, sitting out in the square shaded by plane trees, watching the day go by, waiting for the hotel to open for the evening.