Rochefort to Pau
Another big day on Sunday, our second leg through the length of France this time we made sure to feed ourselves with a decent breakfast first. We sat outside overlooking the Charente river harbour enjoying the view and the usual croissant with soft cheeses hams and coffee and us both adding plenty of jam to our yoghurt too. It was great to while away an hour or so chatting about our family lives over the years. I did look at route adjustment options to get us on to our next destination hotel in Pau near the Pyrénées but in the end decided to stick to the route as planned rather than a detour east on the boring autoroute. Our ride started around 10am crossing the Charente toward Saujon with some straight roads riding through the province of Aquitane to the east of Bordeaux.
Soon we were presented with country farm roads and vineyards all around us crossing over the Dordogne a couple of times once at Libourne, and then later on the D670 at Saint Jean de Blaignac both potential coffee or lunch stops but we were enjoying our ride so much we continued on to cross the Garonne river at Langon stopping for fuel there before enjoying the heavily forested roads in the Gascogne national park. We both agreed today was turning into a great ride, we'd covered a lot of ground in good time and the scenery constantly changing with the climate much warmer as we travelled further south. Just as we were starting to feel hungry and in need of a break we stopped at a nice shaded cafe in the little town of Roquefort just before the bridge on the D626. Being a Sunday we saw plenty of bikers passing through in both directions and both agreed we could easily spend the rest of the afternoon there.
The next section took us along the very straight D934 through forests and farmlands and I swear I heard Rob groan politely as I suggested we might meet Carol Decker today since we were heading T'Pau! It was one of those roads that reminded me of driving in the USA and nice to switch to cruise control and enjoy the scenery while chatting away to Rob on the intercom. Riding into the city of Pau was quite uneventful though we did have a few issues going through the one-way system to our small centrally based Ibis hotel where at check-in I chose the hotel breakfast option and paid access to the secure underground car park. We both shared a good size bay for both bikes. Our short walk into town to find a restaurant had us settle for one on the famous Boulevard des Pyrenees seated right near the road with an excellent view of the sunset across the river valley and a spectacular view of the mountains in the distance. A perfect location after our days ride and good food too, Rob enjoyed his Burger and I had the Entrecôte with frites. We both agreed we were now settling in to the tour well, and looking forward to tomorrows ride up into the mountains.
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