An interesting couple of days: beautiful and enjoyable ascent into the hills to the south east of Bordeaux on a redundant former rail line., followed by our first day on the Canal Latéral de Garonne. How naïve I was to think that the French must have retained all their branch lines and, from a cycling perspective, thanks to Le Bon Dieu that they did not. We rose up into the hills and saw our first vineyards since entering Garonne, including the unfortunately named Château Manson. At Créon the ancient market had live chickens and very fine produce. This land is a productive paradise, like Sicily, only cooler. Sauveterre-en-Guyenne is a small, solid fortified hilltop wine town with wide and low colonnades to keep off the summer sun.
Then followed a more difficult descent to La Réole, a similar sized town but crippled and dying as a result of heavy traffic. The 12C Romanesque town hall is extraordinary, our carefully restored B&B run by the lovely Anne was charming and we had a great meal at the No.2 restaurant in town with fantastic value wine but like, so many, the town has real problems.
Then across the Garonne on the early 20C suspension bridge and on to Mas d'Agenais to see the Rembrandt in the local church, a few hundred metres steeply uphill from the canal. The painting was very fine but the big surprise was the church, a fantastic Romanesque gem in the creamy local stone. The market was in progress and the familiar accents of the Pays d'Oc grow stronger and stronger. Another good dinner tonight at l'Imprévu in Agen: tournedos Rossini and a fine bottle of Buzet. Our B&B host has been great and we have a little cabin next to his pool. Tomorrow we continue along the canal and will look at Moissac, which is highly recommended. Canal scenes below, showing how near the Gironde is at several points.
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