September 5, 2019
Sauveterre-de-Guyenne
A day of two halves
We didn’t wake until after seven then down to what turned out to be a very typical French breakfast. It was quick roll down the hill and we were once more on the canal. The agriculture had changed a lot and now there were enormous expanses of corn. The canal was pretty and was shady. I have a have a love/hate feeling for Plane Trees. I hate the bumps that they make on the cycleway as their roots try to push their way through the asphalt but I love their elegant beauty, their wonderful stately trucks and the shade they provide as they define the canal. It is clearly getting towards the end of summer now as the leaves have that tired look of having done enough work and a few are dropping. There are other signs too acorns are beginning to fall and as you ride under oak tree there is a satisfying ping as the leap from under your tyres. The temperature also is much more bearable, we are now starting off in coats and it doesn’t get to over the mid to late twenties - much more pleasant At Meghan-sur-Garonne we came to a Haulte Nautic with a camping ground and a cafe - it came at exactly the right time for our 20km coffee. Tied up there was a 100yr old Dutch Barge and on board was Trish Wells. They are from Auckland and now it is their permanent home as they roam the waterways of France. I am sure that John Stoppard would be envious of their life style.
Just before La Reole we said goodbye to the canal we have followed for so long and left it. At first it was across the plain until we got to the Geronne then over the suspension bridge to La Reole and then the hills started Although this was the shortest part of the journey, only around 22 km, it took just as long as the rest. The hills were never particularly steep but they were constant up, down,up,down. Now we were out of the corn and in serious grape growing country - there were vines in every direction. I think that picking is just beginning to start as we saw a few hand pickers, a co-operative that looked as if it was receiving a few grapes and a big line up of machine pickers lying silent but all poised for action
Sauveterre is an old Bastide town which you enter from one of four gates. We have the whole of a little old house in the centre. Megan and her husband have done it up lovingly - it is so comfortable and beautiful inside I was particularly pleased to find a washing machine (how boring) so now we may be a little nicer to be near. Tomorrow we will be straight on to a rail trail that will take us the whole 65km to Bordeaux. Accommodation is proving a bit difficult to find at the correct intervals particularly in the weekends so the day after Bordeaux is particularly short as I really dont fancy sleeping under a bridge
Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 1,858 km (1,154 miles)
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