July 31, 2013
I awake sounding as though I have had a sex-change operation: my voice is definitely baritonal, and my lungs are spongy with mucous. My rheume de foins has turned into an old-fashioned respiratory infection, and it will take a few days before my symptoms clear.
I need to have the washing machine repairman return to try to fix it again. Calling his number, I am told he will be by at 11:30 a.m. My English guest and I decide that that might be enough time to hike the carriere du roy, the path along the marble quarry, which leads to a gorge on the far side of which is Notre Dame du Cros.
The path starts on the topmost part of avenue du Minervois, off the road that leads to Peyriac and Rieux. We soon find ourselves by the quarry, where monolithic blocks of marble stand neatly, one on top of the other, waiting to be shipped to Carrara, where they will be polished to a fine red hue and sold. The path, which is known as the carrière du roy because it was from that site that Louis XIV took the marble to make the columns of the Trianon at Versailles, turns away from the quarry and quickly climbs to one of the gorge's edges.
The view over the chasm and beyond, to the snow-capped Pyrenées (which can be seen clearly today) is surprising and wonderful. We are so near to Caunes, yet so far.
The path is being maintained by three young men, employees of the French Department of Forests, who widen the path, see to it that the markers on the path are visible, and that the wooden frames into which informational bulletins about the area are inserted, are maintained in good repair.
"Do you like your job? Do you like getting out of bed in the morning?" I ask them. They smile and affirm that they do, then add, in English,
"It is wonderful!"
My guest and I make it back to Caunes by 11:30 a.m., but no washing machine repairman ever arrives. Having had such a fine experience on the hike, I am not too upset by his failure to arrive. I call the number again and the repairman tells me no one told him of the appointment. (Which is funny, because I remember someone called out to someone over the phone, to ask whether he could be here at 11:30 a.m..) He will be here tomorrow after 2:00 p.m.
***
My guest and I drive to Declathlon Sports on the road to Foix to buy energy bars for bicycle rides as well as electrolyte-replacement drinks for each of us: the sun is beating down and it must be in the mid-90s, although there is not a trace of humidity in the air.
Having paid for everything, we get in the car and drive to the unfortunately-named FunSport. This store is a bicycle enthusiast's idea of heaven. One half --a separate building-- sells-used and inventory clearance bicycles, the other sells new ones. In their categories, prices can run into the thousands of Euros. A titanium frame might cost 4950 Euros, the wheels 1950, plus brakes, plus speeds. If you are serious about working on your bicycle, you can buy a heavy iron contraption that will allow the bicycle to hang suspended at eye-level, to avoid the back strain from having to bend down.
There are helmets that cost several hundred Euros, clothes, gloves, gears, shoes. We are there to buy one screw, which will replace one of the two on the steering mechanism on the Xootr Swift. Total cost: 50 centimes, but the staff member who handles the sale is as friendly as if we had bought an elite bicycle. FunSport is a store that reflects the French obsession with cycling, and the pursuit of technical excellence in bicycle design. Between the new, the used and the inventory clearance models, FunSport must have a thousand bicycles in its two stores, in small, medium, large and extra large sizes.
There are road bikes, track bikes, mountain bikes and every kind of gear that goes with them. All the parts for building your own bicycle are there, if you can afford the price of doing so. You can buy wheels whose rubber circumference extends halfway across the wheel's diameter, an innovation that gives the rider more aerodynamic advantage. You can buy tires for mountain bikes that look as though they would fit on mini-tractors.
You have to be seriously obsessed with bicycles to buy at FunSports.
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