Beginning the third and last of our trip, legs are getting sore but the group boasts some very experienced bikers who help us ease our aching limbs with appropriate streching. We warmly said goodbye to Genevieve and go back on the road again to reach la Ferme du Poc, in the village of Estipouy, only 10 km away.

Here we meet Thierry, yurt-builder, Manu and his crew, who came to buil their yurt and decided to stay longer so they could help Thierry. Here it how it goes around here : you wanna have a yurt but don't have the money ? Come build it here ! Thierry will teach you and you can leave with the inner structure and the fabric after a week or so of cutting, assembling and sewing. We even come and help you settle it wherever you want it planted ! All of this for a little more than 5000€ for the largest yurts (that would cost as much as 25 000€ if you get it built for you). Yurts can be customized to your lifestyle (various fabrics and insulation techniques for cold, humid or hot climates).

 

As we are passing by we meet a small group of 3 or 4 people from the Massif Central who building their yurt (7 meters of diameter).

We begin the visit by Manu’s yurt (40 sq.meters): although 10 people are chatting and wandering inside, the mood stays hushed. Then, as we are coming back from the warehouse where the yurts are built, we get a chance to discover their mobile chicken coop: a huge several-meters long shelter which can move according to how fast the hens are weeding the land.

Back to the warehouse, some are already leaving for the next stade while others get to work : they have a yurt’s buckhead to assemble. Everyone grabs a drill or begins to knot strings in one the hundred holes. It usually takes (with 3 or 4 people) several hours to assemble the whole structure, but with fifteen pair of hands it took us less than an hour!

We split after congratulating each other, back on our way toward St Arailles and Guillot’s farm where the « Art-ô-Soir” festival will harmoniously mark the end of our 3 day trip.

We are blessed with the sunshine for our last pedal strokes, our reward after a trip full of rain, wind and slopes!

We arrive on-site for the festival where the volunteers and the front of the pack, which arrived earlier, are working hard to set everything up for the first visitors of the festival and tonight's concerts. The tone is friendly: people are laughing in front of a burlesque show on a caravan turned into a stage, kids and adults are captivated by several workshops (leatherwork...) and exhibits, somepeople leave for a botanic stroll among the gersian orchids, strongs smells of pizza and ram are filling the air...

 

We set up our tents on the meadow towering the surrounding – yet again another magnifient view –, share a moment of serenity and prepare our last dinner together, when all of a sudden the already threatining gray clouds are replaced by heavy rainfall, for several hours. The trip has gotten us keen on improvisation : we swiftly duck under a trailer full of hay which ideal dimensions could host all of the visitors. Soaked, yet warmed up and with a full belly we avoid raindrops to reach the hardy dancefloor set up under a hay shed and won't leave it for the hours to come, as we dance frantically and forget all weariness to the sound of the concerts all night long.

 

The rooster himself had a hard time getting up the day after. A few brave individuals had woken up to milk the sheep, whose milk is the main ingredient to scrumptious cheeses and tasty yogurts. Well it's true they had the chance to taste milk fresh from the udder ! Dorine and Reinout, two dutch settled since 1988 are breeding ewes (for the milk and sucking lambs), cows from a local breed (for calf meat), and gason pigs to use the whey. The cattle is fed with farm-produced food, following biodynamic principles, and they are treated with homeopathy and phytotherapy.

 

The day goes by, we tidy everything up, then it's time to say goodbye… But not for everyone : a group of good-willed and cheerful bikers still has some energy left to joyfully cycle back to Auch and dance one last time to the accordion and violin which have led us all along this trip, to celebrate this experience on the road, thoses encounters and discoveries, those twists of fate which united us, those pomises for what comes next…

 

Thanks to cycling, we have been able to live at the pace of the changing landscapes, we have slowed down our thoughts and were offered privileged moments of human connexion which sound like good news we'll spread along all our following adventures.

 

In biking, every part is the best part !