Wednesday 21st December 2016

Very cold and frosty this morning at Valence but the mist soon cleared and we had a brilliant warm sunny day. Made the shortish journey south to the City of Auch stopping off along the way for groceries. When we arrived in Auch we tried to take on LPG. The first garage we tried had a broken down LPG pump but they suggested we could get some at E Le Clerk down the road. Getting LPG at Le Clerk's was a real challenge. Firstly getting in to next to the pump was extremely narrow. Secondly they refused to turn on the pump until I had deposited a credit card with them and thirdly getting out of their forecourt was incredibly difficult involving a very complicated backing and forwarding exercise between high curbs. What are these jokers playing at? Eventually we got the hell out of Le Clerk's and parked at the Aire de Camping Cars next to the river Gers. Here's our view.

From the aire there is a really nice cycle path into town. Ann decided she didn't fancy going by bike so we walked.

Here's a view up from the Gers towards Auch Cathedral.

We climbed the (reputedly) 234 steps up from the river to the Cathedral.

On this trip so far we've visited a few piddly little churches. This is something else!

The cathedral door.

Note the intricate column in the centre of the door.

Inside there is a gigantic towering space blocked halfway down by the choir.

The exterior or the choir is fronted by this fine screen.

The cathedral has numerous really fine stained glass windows.

This is the front exterior of Auch Cathedral. The old town surrounding the Cathedral is quite interesting with many old buildings and narrow streets.

On our way back to the Aire de Camping Cars we passed this old tower in one of the narrow streets going back down to the river.

Today we traveled 51 miles (82 kilometres). We are at N43.63522 E0.58810