It was a relaxed start since we were only doing a bit more than 30km after yesterday’s hard slog into the hills. But then as I was pushing a little more air into the back tire with my new pump, pffftttt. No problem, dig out the spare made in France Michelin tube, and away we go … up. Up and up, for the first 13km and 600m vertical. The weather was overcast and rainy in spots so decidedly a change but not really a bother when you’re climbing and sweating anyway. Beautiful mountain (low mountains anyway, still only the altitude of Calgary) country with grazing cattle and goats alongside. All that cheese has to come from somewhere. After the big drop from the top I upshifted and lost the chain. Unfortunately it also got twisted in the jam so it was jumping gears. We made it to our hotel in Florac mostly drifting anyway. Our hotelier did not know of any bike shops and I thought we would need a new chain – ouch! Luckily I found it was only 1 link damaged and I had a spare so un bien réparer et un autre problème résolu.
Florac is a lovely mountain town with a lot of hikers evident. We are in the Cévennes national park so a lot of trails and organization for the tourists.
We took a walk around town but had to duck into a café for an aperitif due to the occasional shower. We also found a very small but well equipped bike shop so I restocked a second spare tube. I could have bought a chain too but declined since we are fixed.
We went for the restaurant in the hotel with good success for dinner. We need high quality fuel to climb up the ridge dominating the town, first thing in the a.m.
You will notice how we are nearly the highest thing around.
Today we looked for a bit of protection from the rain during our lunch stop.
And more rain protection when we were wandering around Florac.
Florac is at the bottom; guess where we go tomorrow.
The spring which is the basis for the town being here historically.
geeteetravels 
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