~58km / ~3 hours 20 minutes / ~400m gain

My Garmin tracker didn’t start this morning. That annoys me. I rode at least 10km before I figured that out…

My butt hurt today :). Doing a 90km and 80km ride this week to get to hotels was a lot of time in the saddle. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I am doing a ton of gravel and wild routes, which means a lot of bumps (so more hits to my royal buttocks). A few days of rest, and I should be as good as new.

Today had a lot of weird routing; at one point, I had gone several kilometers down a trail, only for it to slowly fade into nothing as the howls of a pack of hunting dogs came closer and closer. I already had to walk my bike for the last 100 meters or so, so I quickly walked it back and then rode out to find an alternative route.

Another time the so-called route told me to turn on an alley that was a 10-foot pile of dirt :). Adventure!

55km / 3 hours 13 minutes / 400m gain

Today was gorgeous. Most of my ride was in a national forest or along a converted rail track (gravel). I am a bit tired from some long rides this week but otherwise good. I ate so many blackberries today. I should call this the Blackberry tour for how many bushes are along my route.

I saw my first fox today. My goal is to see one in every country I visit/tour. I’ve seen one in France (he/she even played hide and seek with me) and Portugal.

I also read one of the best thrillers called “I Am Pilgrim“. Fantastic and in the running for one of the best 3 books I read this year.

I am staying at this amazing B&B in nature. I am running low on food, and going to be a small dinner. I’ll need to find some food tomorrow. Dinner was the last hunk of crusty bread withy butter and camembert cheese. Plus, some carrots, nuts, and cranberries.

82km / 4 hours 35 minutes / 564m gain

Today was a long day. My butt was hurting by the end. I had to go extra far today as I couldn’t find a hotel in the middle.

Some map routing issues today. First, the route ended in a random cornfield :). I had to walk through that to get to a road. I kept expecting velociraptors to pop up in the tall corn.

Then on another one, I was going down a dirt road and where it showed a road, there was none, as it was very overgrown. I had to carry my bike through a forest, breaking things to make room. Eventually, I got out :). My legs got pretty torn up, and hopefully no poison ivy.

On one of the dirt roads, there was a herd of Bison. Behind them was a huge nuclear plant. It felt very surreal. Note the bison makes the coolest noise, like this deep hum/growl in their chest. If I had heard that in the woods, I would freak out, but now that I know, I will never get surprised by a bison in the woods.

54km / 3 hours 0 minutes / 417m gain

Today was more farmland, rolling hills, and a lot of little forest groves. The weather was beautiful. It was cold enough this morning that the B&B had a fire going. I stopped for lunch at a little park and read for a while until I could check into the little B&B. Tomorrow is a long 80km day (couldn’t find an open hotel, so going a bit far).

45km / 2 hours 35 minutes / 436m gain

Nice easy day today after the longer day yesterday. I had a big headwind all day, which was rather nice. It was incredibly cool all day; I am thankful for this weather. I think it will get hot toward Wed/Thur.

Lots of blackberries along the way, they were delicious. Today was mostly farmland with little bits of forest. So much wine!

90km / 4 hours 54 minutes / 749m gain

I got an early start today; I knew it was going to be a long ride. Luckily it is still super cool here and I didn’t have to deal with heat. Equally good as I didn’t refill my water bottle and ran out of water in the last hour.

The ride was beautiful, with lots of gravel roads, trails, and paved back country roads. Not too much elevation, given the distance. I ended up near Cognac, France, which was cool to bike through. I would like to try some Cognac (never had it), but it is Saturday, and tasting rooms are closed.

I ate lunch under a tree in a vineyard while it started to rain. I had sardines in water and drank the salty water to make sure I was hydrated and had plenty of salt. Once I got to the apartment, I stocked up on food for the coming days (smaller towns don’t usually have a bakery so far).

53km / 3 hours 18 minutes / 144m gain

It feels good to be on my bike :)

Calico and Lindsey had to get up at 3.30 am to catch their flight, so it was very early morning and a bit of a sleep disaster for Lindsey and me. I don’t think either of us got more than an hour of sleep before the wake up. The hotel was hot, and the window opened to a floodlight that was almost as bright as the sun :).

After they got into the taxi, I went back to sleep (I hope she gets some sleep on the plane).  managed about 3 hours of sleep before my 6.30 am wake-up.

As a result, I am loopy as hell.

I drove to long-term parking, and it took me twice as long to get ready. I started riding at 7.45 am. And I was extra careful getting out of town in a loopy state, I didn’t want to get hit by a truck (I meant to avoid rush hour).

The bike lanes and paths were amazing; the French do such an amazing job on their bike infrastructure. 80% of the time, I was on a dedicated bike path (20% shared, but with a decent amount of room).

The ride was beautiful but wild.

There were plenty of times I was just going through what felt like a wild field. Because of the area, there is a lot of sand, and everything is covered in it. Lots of mud and very careful routing over bumps and weird rivets from the logging trucks. Fun day and I hope the gravel route keeps up. Gravel riding is slower but really fun.

Breakfast was an apple and cashews; lunch was sardines and rice crackers; dessert was some wild blackberries next to the wine fields. I am looking forward to dinner; the small family hotel is surprising me with something!

I jumped on a ferry to get across the inlet, and on the other side was an amazing fortress, the “Citadel of Blaye” (one of the hundreds). I rode my bike all around it as the city made it into a park. It was massive and a really cool history read.

I am going to come back here and do a tour + underground tunnel tour at some point. Hopefully, we are living in this area at some point :)