October 22, 2021
Le Mas d'Agenais to Créon
The bed was plenty comfortable, but I woke up after about five hours of sleep and just couldn't doze off again. Something about these very soft French pillows, I think. I should've brought up the backpack full of clothes I use as a camp pillow.
Sunyoung was up around 6. It's still another two hours until daylight, so she suggested we wait until 7 to eat. We did everything very slowly and leisurely, yet we were still out the door at 8:30. We had a pretty long day ahead of us. We praised one another for the early start.
This was a 3-part day, which came as somewhat of a surprise to us. The first third was on the canal, completely predictable except for one stretch with a lot of tree root bumps. We were riding on feuilles mortes the whole way, so you couldn't see the bumps most of the time. You could sure feel them, though! Totally unprompted, Sunyoung starts singing the Johnny Mercer lyrics: The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold... It made me chuckle, and she thought I was laughing at her, but it was all so peaceful and perfect and blissful that I couldn't help myself. We weren't riding very fast, but that was OK. We would get to where we were going eventually.
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I started to get hungry again after only about 45 minutes of riding. I found a boulangerie on the map at Mielhan-sur-Garonne. When we got there, my hunger pangs had subsided somewhat, and seeing that it was on a hill, we agreed to press on.
We soon left the canal, rode along a levee for a bit, then came to this bridge:
It was closed to cars for some reason, but they left the barricades open wide enough to make it feel inviting. We crossed with confidence. On the other side lay La Réole, which has a Proxi market that we were planning to visit. Riding through the town was a little tricky. A couple of busy roads dumped into it, one of which carried a lot of truck traffic. We climbed a bit, then came to this truck road, which had a boulangerie that I suggested we check out. We're glad we did. It was a big place with coffee and a seating area. We bought a lot of stuff and took a long break. It gave us a second wind that it turns out we were going to need for the second part of the day.
I somehow spotted a Super U on the map about 20 kilometers ahead, so we bailed on the Proxi trip. We were satiated by the second breakfast and knew that we could handle a late lunch.
We entered what must be the land of Bordeaux vineyards. Grapes were about all we saw. The leaves had turned on most of the vines, so we were treated to a dazzle of yellow as far as the eye could see in every direction.
We needed such morale boosters as we tried to get our hill-climbing legs back and as the rain drizzled on us. For the first time in ages, I was again looking at elevation profiles and wondering what lay ahead for us. The route bounced us around like a pinball on the local farm roads. Actually, it was a little more like that classic video game Marble Madness, because the constant turning was accompanied by climbs and drops of all sorts, from short and mild to long and steep.
Somewhere along the line we meet up with the first cycle tourist we've seen in two days. He doesn't speak much English, and we don't speak much French, so our exchange was pretty short. He's doing something called the Tour de Gironde. This is his first bike tour, he's wild camping, and he says he's having fun. We gave him a big thumbs-up and we all wished one another good luck before parting ways.
I kept watching Sauveterre-de-Guyenne, our lunch destination, inch closer and closer on the map and on the posted signs. It snuck up on us and suddenly we were staring at this old city gate:
Soon after that we were cruising through the Super U parking lot. They have a little snack bar with an outdoor seating area. No one was there so we decided it was fair game. I went in and bought what we needed for what will be our last lunch-dinner-breakfast shopping sequence. We feasted on some of the spoils, along with a fine baguette from La Réole that was none the worse for wear after being rained upon.
We completed the loop around town, and I instinctively started down the main road west. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I spied a sign that said piste cyclable something-or-other. I stopped and realized that was the route we were supposed to follow! A smooth, straight, quiet path. O happy day! It turns out to be a rail trail! No more steep climbs!
Thus begins part 3 of the day. It goes down at 2% for a while, up at 2%, rinse, lather, and repeat. I see the telltale overpasses, drainage ditches, roadbeds, and old station houses that I've now come to identify with France's former rail infrastructure. We make quick work of this trail, enjoying the occasional interpretive signs and gawking at the bike rest stops that have potable water, a rarity in France.
Speaking of signs, this bike trail serves triple-duty for long-distance cycling. You can see that it even has its own departmental road number!
This trail features a tunnel, which is lit and is in fantastic shape:
As we approached Créon, we could see that they're starting to develop this trail for more casual riders (there weren't many out there today but that may have been due to the weather).
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An Aldi sign was practically sticking out into the trail. Sunyoung wanted to buy a couple beers to celebrate our last night of camping, so she did. Two kilometers later, we reached the campground, which is very open, which made us very happy.
We had our beers with yet more bread and cheese while we waited for the main course to cook:
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It's supposed to get down to 4 degrees Celsius tonight. Brrrr! We think we're prepared. We'll fire up the stove one last time, run it until the fuel is exhausted, and cheer again for a successful string of camping experiences on this tour. It's been challenging at times, but we've had a lot of fun!
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 2,835 km (1,761 miles)
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Here is the book
https://fr.calameo.com/gironde-tourisme/read/000258713567ffe67d869
so nice to read your blog every morning.
2 years ago
2 years ago