Day 22 73km Hourtin-Bordeaux & Day 23 Bordeaux

Fine, level going and a beautiful, sunny, if chilly day but there was rather a lot of dead straight roads going on for many kilometres through pine forests. There are signs that some of the land is being reclaimed as fields and some is being allowed to regenerate naturally as mixed woodland. This is just as well because pine woods have such a low proportion of flora and fauna by comparison.

Excellent Chambres d'Hote in an area close to the centre of Bordeaux, nicely refurbished by Juliette, who is early 30s and very organised. Nice breakfasts, good showers, very helpful on where to go and to eat/drink. This is a major city for cycling, youth, fashion, shopping, the beautiful people, eating and drinking.

We had an excellent meal at the Brasserie Bordelaise and tonight at a wine bar, where we did pretty well in a blind tasting. Sadly the main art museums are closed on a Tuesday but, dodging the rain, we went to the Musée d'Art Contemporain. This is in a well-converted grand former goods warehouse but the shows were not particularly striking, the largest being works by feminist artist Judy Chicago. Cath returned to the room to do some work and I explored Bordeaux for a few hours. This included the very large 12-14C cathedral and the ageing brutalist/modern quarter around Meriadeck. Pictures below.

Jacques Chabon Delmas, what a guy. Longtime mayor of Bordeaux, Free French hero in WWII and a consummate operator to run a city with the tricky politics that this one no doubt has. The wealth goes back a very long way and it is a major European city but a very long way west. It has always looked to the sea and the cruise ships can reach the city centre but, like so many ports, the decline in importance of sea trade has reduced its influence. Great place, great buildings, mostly in the fine local stone.

Note from Cath: another long day's cycling ahead of us tomorrow. We're planning to cover approximately 80km which will be in an easterly or south easterly direction. Sun is forecast, along with the same relatively low temperatures we've experienced throughout April. Despite the chill, we are starting to feel that we've come a long way south. We can hear it at times in the local accent, and this effect will become more pronounced the further we go. At the rate we're planning we could be in Toulouse within just a few days.