Vaucluse Dreamer

We had such a lovely evening yesterday, staying in the camp site that we had visited so many times before, albeit, the last time being in 1999.

We did the evening walk that had been our favourite walk, all those years ago, taking the quiet road to the Tour de Broue, the last remaining part of an old fortress that was built in the 11th century. It’s on a promontory with incredible views across to Marennes, Brouages and beyond & many years ago was the first place that we had ever seen a Stork’s nest.

It’s an incredibly peaceful place to sit on a stone bench and watch the sunset across the marshes and last night’s sunset was calm, golden and very beautiful indeed. In fact, it also has a great signal, so I sat and finished last night’s blog, whilst we were there.

Over the last few days we’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather and have had to revise our route and rides a little, as we really aren’t keen on cycling through the predicted storms, or camping in torrential rain.

We knew there would be some rain overnight, and woke in the early hours to the wind ruffling the tent and the rain pattering above us, which continued on and off until we woke up. Ridiculously there’s something really cosy and snuggly about being in a tent when it’s raining, it’s just the thought (and practice) of having to pack down a soggy tent in the rain that makes it a lot less enjoyable.

We are getting very slick at packing the tent down now, and by 8am, everything was away and we were pedalling out of the site and across the marshes.

It had stopped raining, but the roads were slick with water, so we pottered off gently, our minds set on the first job of the day, to find some breakfast!

Happily today wasn’t a Boulangerie wasteland, and we pottered into nearby Le Gua, where we had earmarked an early opportunity for both croissants and coffee. We weren’t disappointed and knowing that we had over 90km to cycle today, I went for the chocolatine aux amandes, (for the protein of course) and it was every bit as delicious as it looked!

With our stomachs full and caffeine in our system, we set off again following probably the most wonderful route to date.

I know it’s easy to just allow different apps to plan routes, but we have a real aversion to busy roads, and so I had spent a long time seeking out the roads less travelled. The quiet back roads that don’t even warrant a line down the centre of them, or if there is a line, it tends to be due to the grass growing. It had taken a while, as we had changed the route that we had planned due to the predicted storm that is forecasted to hit us tonight, avoiding camping and booking into a little house for the night instead.

Every time I put the route in, it tried to take us along the hideous main roads, as the area is criss-crossed by them, heading to Saintes, Royan and further afield. But I had managed to find a quiet route through and it was an absolute delight, especially as this was an area that we had never cycled through before.

Within a few kilometres of leaving our campsite, we found ourselves on empty roads with just the birds for company.

We pottered through the first of the Cognac vineyards, making our way between the stunning villages of the Saintonge (the area surrounding  the beautiful town of Saintes).

I love the villages here with the elegant, creamy stone houses, and beautiful Romanesque Churches. Each is a delight and has its own character as we cycled through.

We had checked the weather before leaving and it suggested that we may have a few showers, but as we cycled along we could see them to the left of us and to the right of us too, but where we were, stayed dry and we just enjoyed the ride.

There was a stiff wind, but for once it was in our backs, helping us along, pushing us gently up the hills and chasing us down them. Some days on the bikes are just perfect and today was one of those days.

You can watch the video from today’s ride here

The closer we got to Cognac, the more extensive the vineyards became and they stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Orderly stripes across every lump and bump of the landscape, with just the occasional sunflower or maize field to interrupt the stripes.

Pedalling was just a joy and the kilometres passed easily along quiet roads that were so smooth in places that the tyres sounded like the swish of silk as we passed over it.

The roads we took crossed the main roads and the traffic on them came almost as a surprise, but we just passed over them and carried on our way, with hawks and kestrels circling the vineyards and clusters of partridge running across the road in front of us.

We stopped in the peaceful and beautiful village of Ars  (yes, we did snigger at the name, I know we’re old enough not to, but we couldn’t help it… Our friends said they used to buy Ars wine too, which made us laugh even more). We are our lunch by the 12th century church, enjoying the sandwich that we had bought in Le Gua earlier, watching the clouds thicken and then melt away again. It felt as if the weather-gods were really on our side today.

The afternoon followed the same path, quiet roads through beautiful rolling countryside and passing through stunning villages, with houses that turned our heads

Around Cognac, every village had amazing fortified estates, with huge stone walls and heavy wooden gates, reinforced with ancient ironwork. They weren’t chateaux in the turreted, elegant way we imagine them to be, but beautiful buildings, that oozed with the wealth of the Cognac-making of the past. Their heavy stone walls and beautifully carved entrances testament to what lay behind.

I don’t think I can even start to describe how much we enjoyed today’s ride. France is a beautiful country and taking the quiet back roads just makes us realise how lucky we are to be able to explore it like this .

It wasn’t all perfect though, and after buying food, and filling our panniers, we cycled through to the pretty riverside village of Saint Simon, on the River Charente, where we had booked a place to stay for the night. Or at least that was what we thought!

When we pulled up into the square, I asked Andy for the address, only to find it was in a village 6km away that we had passed through, 20 minutes earlier. It had been listed as being in the village we had pedalled to, but in fact was somewhere completely different.

There’s no point in getting angry, or upset, so we just turned round and cycled back (into what was now a stiff headwind) and made our way past some pretty houses, with incredible stone gateways (my favourite being the boar on one side facing down the hunting dogs on the other).

It didn’t take long to get back to where the house actually was, although I was aware that Andy was chuntering to himself behind me, as we pedalled back the way we had already come.

So we’re now within an easy ride of Angoulême and tonight we’re predicted strong rain and wind, so we are definitely better off in the house, even if it isn’t quite where we imagined it to be! We have a feeling we’ll get a bit wet and wind-blasted on the ride  tomorrow, but at least we’ll be there ready to watch the rugby.

It’s hard to believe that we have now cycled over 700km since leaving East Devon last week, but so far it’s been a great ride and we’ve passed through some beautiful countryside. All we need now is for Provence Rugby to beat Angoulême tomorrow night and the first 10 days will have been perfect!

Allez Les Noirs!