5. Chalabre bike and hike

September 09, 2025

No big news today, just beautiful weather and temps to explore some bike routes Earl found on his CycloTourist map of the area. He and I drove up to Chalabre, kind of a dangerous narrow climbing road, then parked and set out to explore: Earl on foot hiking the town in search of the elusive “Voie Verte” (V.V.) bike trail to Canal Midi; me on bike trying to circle Lac de Montbel on back roads. Meet back up in two hours was our plan. Per a famous Seinfeld episode, Lynn supplied sandwiches to us two cool guys for our adventure!

The drive to Chalabre is full of twisty climbing mountain turns and short arrow-straight stretches for passing slower cars. A couple of tiny towns are thrown in there, too. It’d be a perfect course for the Cobra or other sports car. We had fun anyway, arriving safely in Chalabre, parking between two trees along the street in the French manner. Bike removed from car, helmet and lights on, map displayed on phone: check. I took off down a nearby street that pointed North…that should do it. Earl was determined to find the entrance to that Voie Verte, so no telling where or what he did on foot while I was gone!

The first discovery I made was the magical Voie Verte! While pedaling along my road, I noticed an elevated levee-like feature running alongside my road, and it had a crushed gravel surface…THE VOIE VERTE! I pushed my bike across the grass separating us, and started jamming on it. Wonderful! This path is a converted Rail Trail, perfect packed surface, NO CARS allowed, stretching from way below Chalabre, north to the Canal du Midi, a World Heritage cultural site. Earl still had to try to locate the entrance to the trail in Chalabre, but at least I had stumbled onto the actual trail, and could use it for part of my loop around the lake. We plan to return next week to ride a longer stretch of the V.V., but that’s another story.

One of the cool things about the V.V. is the old railroad tunnels along it’s length. I went through two of them today, really cool. Tall arch-shaped structures, dark inside because they’re so long and curved that you can’t see light from the other side when you ride in. An automatic sensor flips on interior lighting when your presence is noted. Thank goodness! Can you imagine what it was like when old steam powered locomotives blasted into these tunnels with coal smoke pouring out of the smokestack, passenger and cargo cars swaying behind? Tres incroyable!

Though I had a photo of our map, I felt like I could navigate accurately using road signs posted at each intersection once I left the Voie Verte at Camon. HAHAHAHAHA, I screwed up again, missed a crucial turn and rode far afield, so the “loop” was not to be. Instead, I rode a few extra miles thinking I could find an unmarked back road to get back on track, but no luck. To make our Two Hour plan work, I just turned around and headed back on the same route…you get totally different scenery on the way back, from the totally different perspective! I found a scenic castle ruin way off the road, then a beautiful church plaza in Camon before I rejoined the V.V. A fellow tourist and i exchanged photo taking duties, so I have a great pic of me and my bike from that spot. While there we briefly met another bike tourist, wielding a hand-powered racing three-wheeler, usually used by paraplegic athletes. He was an inspiration for sure.

Arriving back at Chalabre on time, I found Earl's quest had not been in vain: he discovered the hidden trail head, disguised as a heavy equipment warehouse parking lot. This is soooo French, you gotta work really hard to find the good stuff! We celebrated by finding a local cafe (I got to use my pidgin French to ask for directions from a white-bearded senior wearing a strangely decorated onesy) for drinks, and lunched on Lynn’s sandwiches. Another drive down the mountain to return home to Quillan, then clean up, and head out to explore more of our town. And, of course, to eat, perchance to dream. C’est Bon!

Earl with Don Quixote statute, to commemorate Earl's quest for his dream: the entrance to the Voie Verte trail!

Good miles and experiences today!

Lynn took a photo of me leaving this morning, after we both watched a trout fisherman working the whitewater section of the river below us. Cool stuff to remember!