Vaucluse Dreamer

This morning started early, when we pulled up the blinds of the beautiful Chambres D’Hote that we had stayed in in Pons, and sat in bed watching the swifts playing around the church tower behind us.

We sat, scouring the weather forecasts, trying to see what would be the best route to take, as we had been seeing weather warnings for thunderstorms with hail later today, and lots of storms over the coming week.

We had decided, yesterday evening, that with the predicted weather fronts, we would probably be better to avoid heading towards the Massif Central and the gorges, which had been our original plan. After a lot of chat over supper, we had felt that to take a route down towards Toulouse and Carcassonne may be a better option, ending the ride by following the Mediterrannée cycle route, that literally goes past the end of our road.

All the forecasts we looked at this morning, showed thunderstorms hitting the Libourne area at about 3pm, so we decided to get underway early and make our way down, gauging where to stay tonight on the way, once we had an idea of the weather and how the route was going.

We settled on a route that would take us down to Jonzac, before continuing to head down towards a small town called Castillon-la-Bataille and after marking the route on the map, we went downstairs for breakfast.

The table was laid out with everything we could have possibly wanted, and the host had gone to extra effort for us, even buying a ‘pain sportif’ to keep us going.

We got going by 8.30 and headed out on the route we had chosen, which at first seemed OK, but then (after a roundabout) became really busy and after having more close passes in 1km than we have had in the whole of the trip, we turned straight off and onto a backroad, stopping to sort out a new route.

In fact, it was the best thing that could have happened, as we found ourselves on quiet, in fact empty back roads that took us on a delightful route through the Cognac vineyards.

The scenery reminded us of the open, undulating downs of South Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, to the point that we wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen a White Horse carved into the hillside.

We could see the storms on the horizon and the black clouds looked stark against the golden fields of wheat, which were still bright in the sun. Yet beyond, the heavy clouds were fringed with the rain falling steadily from them. We though, were still dry!

We pedalled on, amazed at some of the farms and buildings that we were passing. Some seemed to be enclosed hamlets in their own right, with basic curtain walls and incredible churches, which made us think that we must research a bit more about the history of the area, as there must have been a reason for having such fortified farms.

By now, the rain had started falling and as we were getting slightly soggy, we popped in for a coffee at Baignes-Sainte-Radegonde just to get a better sense of where we were and where we should plan to stay for the night. A chap in the bar started talking about the storm warnings for the afternoon, which seemed to be getting more pronounced, so we decided to make sure we ended the ride before they were due to hit, booking a hotel at Coutras, which was about an hour and a half further on, along the route we had planned

It turned out that our coffee stop had been very well-timed, as when we cycled out of the village, we hit sodden roads, covered with puddles, where a localised heavy downpour had just passed through. Without the coffee, we would have got very wet indeed.

Even in the rain, it was a lovely ride, following the back roads through towards Coutras, finally joining a more major road, which was almost as quiet as the lanes we had already cycled along.

At times we were in a shower, but they were never torrential and we soon dried off in between, yet the clouds were still building around us, threatening something worse.

Strangely though, just before arriving in Coutras, the clouds seemed to split and the sun broke through, seeing us cycle across the bridge, beautifully decorated with flowers, into the town, under bright blue skies.

As we rode in, we saw a big banner on one of the buildings, heralding the Tour de France passing through the town on 8th July, so we pulled into the square and sat in the sun doing our Daily Update

Before sitting by the river, listening to the frogs chatter and watching the water slip gently past.

It felt as if today’s ride was a mere hop, skip and jump in comparison to the distances we have done recently, but it has brought us further south and gives us a good point to start again tomorrow, when the weather is forecast to be slightly better.

What has amazed us though is that we have now turned the pedals for 829 kilometres, since leaving home, a week ago today. If we had ridden that in the UK, we’d be north of Edinburgh by now.

I can hardly believe it at all .