Friday 28th May
Legruere (on the canal) to Botte
Today we have thrown caution to the wind and set off in a northerly direction – abandoning our comfort zone and the security of the Canal du Midi - destination amongst others, St Emilion. At first the route was quite flat and we crossed the Garonne River at Tonneins where we had stayed last October and started heading across country towards Duras. The worst thing about going north /south in this region is that all the rivers and streams run from north east to south west so there is never more than 1 mile before you are either going down or worse still, going up. We followed the river Dropt as much as possible and this is fruit and nut country. There are huge orchards of hazelnuts and walnuts, interspersed with apples, plums and vines.
Something for the bees
Gontaud de Nogaret covered market
Legruere (on the canal) to Botte
Today we have thrown caution to the wind and set off in a northerly direction – abandoning our comfort zone and the security of the Canal du Midi - destination amongst others, St Emilion. At first the route was quite flat and we crossed the Garonne River at Tonneins where we had stayed last October and started heading across country towards Duras. The worst thing about going north /south in this region is that all the rivers and streams run from north east to south west so there is never more than 1 mile before you are either going down or worse still, going up. We followed the river Dropt as much as possible and this is fruit and nut country. There are huge orchards of hazelnuts and walnuts, interspersed with apples, plums and vines.
Something for the bees
Gontaud de Nogaret covered market
It is glorious rolling countryside full of old stone houses and converted barns. As we near the Dordogne the first thing that strikes you is the number of English cars and houses called ----- Farmhouse. We can see why it is so popular as the landscape is very similar to Gloucestershire and around Bath, on a rather larger scale. From the top of each hill the views are stunning so it is worth the extra effort and as we always remind each other, there is no such thing as a hill that you can’t push your bike up! I think that I must have covered at least a fifth of France doing exactly this. We had a coffee in a shop which sold everything imaginable in a village called St Barthelemy
Yes this shop sells everything!
View north towards the Dropt.
Yes this shop sells everything!
And then ate lunch at a ‘viewing point’ above Monteton before whizzing down the hill to Botte where we are booked into a B&B. Fortunately it hasn’t been so hot today but we felt well exercised on arrival.
We were made very welcome yet again and our host very kindly helped us to plan our next day’s trip, showing us the route and ringing the b&b for us. We biked into the neighbouring village for a good supper. It is bliss to be able to return whilst it is still daylight and the sunset tonight was spectacular.
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