Day 18: Carcassonne to Beziers: 108 km. a bumpy ride.

Struggled a bit on the bumpy towpaths and my average speed for the day dropped below 16 kph for the first time. Seven hours riding to do just north of 100 km is a bit too slow. Canal du Midi was as good as it gets with lots of Brits and Americans on the 'pleasure' boats queueing to pass through the locks. I can't see the 'pleasure' in the 'pleasure' boats. People are mostly swabbing the deck or looking a bit bored. They wave at me a lot and I ignore them. Seems like the right thing to do.

So far, I've had to master four types of coffee machine, six types of washing machine (including one that insisted I operate it through an app) and more shower tap configurations than is reasonable. Everywhere I stay seems to want to announce its individual and unique character with some little quirk when it comes to everyday objects. Last night it was towels. That's right, towels.

I had a shower as soon as I arrived at the 'compact' studio in Carcassonne. It really is the best bit of the day for me, just ahead of starfishing on the bed. Oh joy. Anyway, I reach for the towel and start to dry off. Well, this is weird. It's stretchy. The towel is elastic! Try drying your back with that! As you pull it to one side it simply stretches so you can't actually rub yourself with it. Who thought this would ever be a good idea? 

I'm going to stop now. Am I becoming a gammon?