clairedavieswriter

Today we bade farewell to Les Landes.

La Gironde didn’t look all that different at certain points.

But in between these photos we passed a big area that still bore the scars of last year’s fires. Pine forests, homes and entire campsites had been consumed, and reconstruction was underway everywhere: a desperate race against time to be ready for the summer season. Given all the other priorities, we were impressed that the cycle path had already been re-surfaced:

And nature was doing the rest…

We skirted to the south of Arcachon and the vast Dune de Pyla (no photo could possibly do it justice), and from then on, it was a straight sprint to Bordeaux:

Food and comfort stops were hard to come by: we passed nothing at all for over 40k, when we found an Aladdin’s cave of a boulangerie, selling more pastries, buns, tarts, sandwiches and salads than you could possibly shake a stick at.
Then it was like this for the next 40k. Our time trialling is improving with practice.

Pedalling into Bordeaux we found ourselves among friends:

It’s a city blessed with majestic buildings:

Though some had fallen victim to recent angry protests over changes to the pension age: these are the town hall doors – scorched but still standing:

As always, there were curiosities that caught the eye:

Bernard was sorry we’d missed this event in the local calendar:

And we were all glad to have another day without rain, especially when we saw this sign:

On arrival in Bordeaux, we were told there was no room at the inn for Bernard and Colin. But where there’s a will there’s a way. Luckily, they don’t snore.