The loop

15 January 2007

Today is cooler; the thermometer in my bike computer says 58 degrees, so I ride without leggings, wool socks, gloves and insulated hat, my usual outfit for early morning rides, but keep my thicker long-sleeved jersey. The afternoon sun is lower in the western sky, moving over the northern edge of the Alberes, so we get more sun here than farther up the road where it’s blocked by the Vallespir range.

The light here is beautiful. One of ma belle soeur’s neighbors in L’Etang la Ville mentioned that. She was from Marseilles and told us we would love the light here. The land is high-desert, similar to Flagstaff in Arizona or southern Utah, but the air is moist from the Mediteranean, so the light is a diffused and the landscape is diffused. On days like today, I can understand the Impressionists fascination with the area.

I’ve found a nice loop to do on a recovery day like today. Our village has three ‘main’ roads entering it, the D60a coming up from the valley floor and the D11 transecting it east to west. The village to the east of us, Laroque des Alberes, is just 2 kilometers down the road and is rumoured to have the best baguettes in the area. This has been unconfirmed as the damned Boulangerie never seems to be open. So far that honor has been claimed by the Boulangerie in Fourques, with its most amazing baguette longue, crunchy, almost pastry-like crust, with soft inside.

I pass the Boulangerie/patisserie in Laroque and it is indeed closed. The D2 comes up from the valley floor here and offers a tempting descent. I follow the sign for Sorede, the next town on the mountainside just a few more kilometres along. Sorede’s developing vacation homes have almost reached Laroque. A short descent and climb and neat, stucco homes with creative names pop up. ‘Terre de Chien’ strikes me as an appropriate description of what has happened and is happening to this place. As I approach the sea, the intensity of the development increases. Pizza places, pony clubs, culminating in a sea of trashy little shops in Argeles sur Mer. I’ll avoid that today, just touching Argeles before heading back on my loop.

Sorede presents a complicated tangle of bridges, small roads and twists in my route. Here the D11 decides to go north to the valley floor and the omnipresent D2 takes over as the mountain road to Argeles. If one isn’t careful about following the sign to Argeles, the road begins to quickly descend towards St Andre below. On a bike, this means an added bit of climbing to get back to the village and the road to Argeles.

The 6.5 k between the villages is filled with a mixture of pine, cork-oak, older houses with messy yards and vacation villas with security systems set. What will this place be like in 5 years? 10? The TGV is burrowing through the Spanish side of the mountain and Parisians will be able to whirr to Barcelona in a few hours, and the new, multi-lane D618 will open up more of the surrounding areas to Perpigan commuters wanting to live out in the rural areas. Geoff first came through the Perpigan area in 1965 when it was just a small, two-lane road linking the cities of the coast.

I turn at the light, direction St Andre and avoid traffic seeking the Autoroute and the 618. The platane trees line the old 618 and there’s little traffic here. The road appears flat, but it’s a false flat, the road rising with the river Tech nearby. Le Canigou squats in the distance, and the Aspres hills rise on my right. I can see Villelongue on the mountainside, just below Laroque. It’s been a nice ride today.

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