Savuveterre De Guyenne to Bordeaux 39 miles Running total 368

Here is todays route https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42298698

After the last 10 miles of yesterday’s ride being up and down hills, we decide on an 8am breakfast as we have 35 miles to cycle to Bordeaux and we will be able to check in from 2pm. We head the short way into the walled town of Savuveterre De Guyenne and, in the square fimd the cycleway signage.

Almost immediately after exiting the town, we find ourselves on a disused railway track with a beautiful tarmac surface. The profile of todays ride looked very hilly but thank goodness the old railway line flattened this out with cuttings, tunnels with lights, embankments, and old railway stations.

By 11:00 we had already covered 20 miles and came to a small town with a bike hire business on an old station. I carefully wrote down the sizes of innertubes needed, and hurrah they had two, which I purchased. We then cycled into the walled town called Creon to celebrate with a coffee.

From this point, it was a gentle downhill ride for 8 miles. My compatriot loved it. We stopped in a picnic area with French families and finished our wine, carried in my water bottle and drunk from our coronation goblet.

On the outskirts of Bordeaux the cycleway eventually returned to the banks of the Garonne, which we followed into the centre of Bordeaux. We navigated around yet another, you guessed it, deviation. Thank goodness for a helpful young French girl who shouted instructions at us to ensure we found our way out of the roadworks we should not have been in. We arrived at our hotel at 3pm and had to take our bikes round the corner to the sister hotel to store them for the two days we are here.

It is a day off from cycling tomorrow, although I have a surprise for my compatriot. The first job is to get the laundry going as the washing has two days to dry, then a shower, before we go out for a beer or wine and an exploration of the locality. More on the surprise tomorrow.