Less than three weeks to go,
folks!
I had my longest ride so far this
year – 132 km. Passing through Seyches (belltower/arched entrance to the
village, next to the church), I arrived at the canal (La Gaulette Lock) and
sought out the two B&Bs near Lagruère where we shall be staying. One was
quite tricky to find, so I’m glad I made the effort. Note the diseased trees;
there was hardly one that was not affected. A shame! Note also the British
narrow boats – brought by low loader, I guess, unless one of them featured in
the book ‘Narrow Dog to Carcassonne.’
Suspension bridge over the River Garonne, to La Réole (oldest town hall in France, built
by Richard the LH) and La Réole itself on the river, reminiscent of Chateau
Gontier 2 years ago. I don’t know if we’ll have time to go there – maybe the
faster of us might manage a diversion! (but that lets me out!) I may have remarked somewhere else that
from Arcachon to Bazas we will be riding bits of greenway which will one day be
all joined up under a departmental road number, D804 (at least in the Gironde).
Now I see that the Garonne
Canal towpath also has a
number, D809! In all, I covered 36 km of the canal – all tarmacked, of course.
And now an apology. A spreadsheet
I sent out after I found those two B&Bs contains two errors. The distance
from Lagruère to Agen is not 73 km as stated, but only 43 km, making Day 2 our
shortest. That’s the good news! More good news is that there is no error
overall, as far as I am aware. It follows, however, that there is a mistake
elsewhere: in fact, Agen to Toulouse
will be in the region of 109 km, not 81 km. Sorry about that, but not a huge
distance to do, given the terrain and the wind (we hope!) On that subject, the
wind today was blowing from the SE – we can do without that, thanks!!! (but it
wasn’t strong) It was also quite hot today: 26 C was predicted and I’d guess it
reached that!
