Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 6: In which we make it to Bordeaux

 After a glorious sleep and a copious breakfast, for which we had only to walk down the hall, we said goodbye to our hostess at Domaine de Gaïa (and if you're in the area, I don't think you'll be disappointed) and headed back down to the Piste Roger Lapébie and toward Bordeaux. As we were riding away, I remarked to Sonia that, for me, the mornings are truly what make these trips special. I can take or leave the afternoons. But the mornings—the fresh air, singing birds, awakening landscape, the sense of renewed adventure—are magical. 

The PRL is a wonderful rail trail that reminds me a little of the Petit train du nord in Quebec, but also of some of the rail trails in the Eastern Townships. It's beautifully paved and cuts through vineyards, farmland, and small towns—all picturesque in the extreme. 

A cool tunnel on the PRL

At Sauve, we headed into town to have a look at the old Abbey, but both it and the town's only patisserie were closed (the latter permanently, alas), so we had a short look around and headed back to the bike path.

Grand-Sauve Abbey

We arrived in Créon, where we bought lunch provisions and a pastry but also stopped for second breakfast. From there, the trail was mostly, gloriously, downhill all the way to Bordeaux, so we made great time. We had hoped to have lunch beside the river, but most of the shoreline appears to be privately owned, so we forked inland at a promising green space and had lunch in a quiet spot away from the noise of the road that runs parallel to the river. 

Basilic Saint-Michel and the Pont de Pierre

From there it was a very short shot down the river, across the Pont de Pierre—which allows only trams, busses, cyclists, and pedestrians, imagine that—and over to our Airbnb for the next two nights, a cute little apartment right in the old part of town. We may well need earplugs to sleep, but that's the price to pay to be where we are. 

Tomorrow, the bikes will stay in the apartment (after being lugged up to flights of stairs) while we take a "rest" day and explore this ancient city. 

I have updated the previous two days' posts, if you want to go back and look at some pictures.