Cycle tour 2022 – Day 22: Home again, home again.

For some reason, neither of us slept very well our last night in France. Perhaps it was the agitation of knowing the next day would be a long-ass travel day; or it might have been the thunderstorms rattling the apartment's windows which were still open because of the heat. In any case, we arose quite early and had a leisurely breakfast and then began packing up to head to the airport. 

Our flight left at about 3 p.m., and we wanted to be at the airport by 11:30 so we'd have enough time to change, get our bikes and bags organized, and be ready to check in 3 hours before our flight left. I know, ridiculously early, but you don't want to be in a rush when you have to get a bike on the plane, especially when it's an airport we'd never flown out of before. 

So we left the apartment at about 9:15, giving us time to walk our bikes through the Grand Rond and Jardin des plantes, which we'd missed the day before. It also meant we could take the longer but nicer route to the airport, riding along the Canal du Midi, which begins in Toulouse where the Canal latéral de la Garonne ends, a nice little bookend to the trip. The weather was cool and misty—the kind of weather I had sort of been expecting throughout this trip, to be honest. France delivered on our last day. Sonia joked that in earlier trips, this sort of weather would have prompted us to don our wet weather gear, just in case. But now we know that this is just lovely, cool riding weather.

Le jardin royal

The Canal du Midi ends at a small basin that connects with the Canal de la Garonne the Canal de Brienne. But our route toward the airport took us north along the Garonne proper, where we eventually crossed over to Blagnac on the Pont de Blagnac, which we had crossed the other way on our way out of Toulouse three weeks earlier. Another bookend. 

The Garonne, from the Pont de Blagnac

Then we looked for one final patisserie so we could allow our stomachs to say their final goodbyes to France, and rolled to the airport at almost 11:30 on the dot. It didn't take us too long to change and get our bikes and bags ready. There were very few people at the check-in counter at this early hour, and, aside from reassuring the agents that we had kept our bike bags from the trip out and showing them where to put the baggage tags on the bikes, everything went smoothly. 

One last taste of French pastry

Then we spent about 30 minutes at the oversize luggage check-in, reassuring them that the bike bags provided by Air Transat were not a problem and that our bikes would be fine. The were more concerned that our bikes would be damaged en route and were very surprised by the arrangement all around. Of course, as with Basel on our last trip, the "oversize" scanner in Toulouse is not really meant for something as outrageously huge as a bicycle, so they had to do a physical inspection and chemical test beforehand. We knew this, and asked them repeatedly whether they wanted to do this before we put the bikes in the bags. And they repeatedly said no, it was OK. So we put the bikes in the bags, whereupon they were suddenly shocked and amazed that the bikes would not fit through the scanner and had to rip some holes in the bags to do the a chemical test. Sigh. 

We left the bikes propped up against a wall in the oversized luggage area, wondering if we'd ever see them again, and made our way through security. Again, very short lines. Nothing like the trip out three weeks ago, where we waited in line for almost an hour. Of course, this meant that we had a two hour wait at the gate. But that really was fine. I spent it scanning the baggage carts as they were towed up, searching for our bikes. And shortly before we boarded, we saw them being loaded onto the plane. Hallelujah!

Our little plane, with a huge Airbus BelugaXL  in the background

The flight was extremely smooth, and once again, we lucked out and had a free seat between us. It really does make all the difference. We landed on time, wound our way through the 3 or 4 kilometres of hallway to get to customs, breezed through (news reports of horrendous wait times due to random Covid testing had seemingly been greatly exaggerated), and went to pick up our luggage. The bikes, having been among the last items loaded, were already at the oversize carousel when I got there, and our bags came out shortly thereafter. We got the bikes ready and loaded and were out of Trudeau airport, ready to ride home, within an hour of landing. By far a record! 

Unlike the last trip, we knew exactly how to ride out of the airport, cross the CN tracks and Autoroute 20 and get to the St. Lawrence this time. The ride home along the St. Lawrence and Lachine Canal truly is a lovely way to end a bike tour. The weather was cool, and so even though it was a holiday, the path was not overly crowded. We stopped briefly to eat sandwiches at the Atwater Market, and then embarked on the final 12 kilometres home. The last climb, up the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, is quite cruel with panniers, but even Sonia managed it, with her legs hardened from three weeks of touring. We made it home by 8:25, about 3 1/2 hours after landing, just as the sun was setting.