Sommières voie verte.

Sommières railway station as it was.

We are staying in a hotel which is the former railway station of Sommières. The voie verte starts at the gate and runs for about 22 km in an easterly direction.

I am not particularly fond of the countryside through which it passes. At this time of the year the Languedoc is brown earth, brown grass and brown rock. 

Langlade railway station on the voie verte.

The most green to be seen is the paint on the tarmac where the cycle track crosses a road.

But the ride was enjoyable despite this and the temperature in the low forties centigrade.

It has been superbly maintained by the local authority of the Gard département. 

Voie verte at Sommières.

They were resurfacing parts of it with a dedication unseen in the UK. The surface was being skimmed off, the sublayer scarified and then tarmac laid and rolled. To protect the edges the verges were being raised with topsoil.

If we did this to our roads instead of throwing a handful of chippings onto a smear of tar then perhaps they would last longer.