Ride The Flavour (en)

Day Two – 70 km

May. 1st | 0 comments

Sunday 21st April 2013. From Royan to Saint-Julien-Beychevelle.

8 am. We get out of our tent. Lemon tea and biscuits. Our breakfast is frugal but helps us to emerge. As we quietly pack up, Leo realizes that it is already 8:50 am. Problem : the ferryboat that we want to take to cross the Gironde Estuary is leaving at 9:30 am. And we do not want to miss it, the next one being at 11am. We have 40 minutes to take down our tent, get back our batteries, and ride 5 km to the port of Royan! We are in a hurry!

9:10 am, we start riding. 20 minutes left. At the end of these 5 km is our target. We pedal at a frenetic pace. We can now see the port. The ferryboat is docked, but are its doors still open?

Our racing bikes. Were we fast enough?


Veloscoot au naturel

Yes we were! Sprint test checked. We are on board! And to make our victory even more tasty, our bikes are barely locked before the ferryboat leaves the port!


A bord du bac Royan-Pointe de Grave

We land at Verdon-sur-mer and go South. We are in a region called Médoc, famous for its wines. We cross Saint-Vivien-de-Médoc and few km away, vines suddenly arise from the flat landscape. Vineyards are everywhere!

Vineyards as far as your eyes can see…


Les vignes à perte de vue

But vineyards sometimes disappear… Hello girls!


Les vaches médocaines

If you leave the tarred roads, you can get closer to the Gironde and come upon on paths lost in the middle of nowhere and muddy at will. A pure happiness when riding an electric bike! We get stuck in the mud, we spin, we come to a standstill, the weight of our bike bags throw off our balance… but hup! A push on the trigger sets off the electric assistance and we set off again!

In the middle of one of these muddy paths


Au milieu d'une session tout-terrain

While we are in this wine-growing region, it would be a shame to miss out on the most famous villages such as Saint-Estèphe and Pauillac. So, we stop by Saint-Estèphe and Pauillac!


L'omniprésence de la vigne


Saint-Estèphe


Pauillac

It is almost 7 pm when we arrive in Pauillac. We will soon have to stop and find someone who will accept to recharge our batteries and somewhere to set up our tent. But we first want to go out of this city, which is far from being as enjoyable as its wines… We keep riding, looking for a more wooded landscape, and arrive at Saint-Julien-Beychevelle.

Crossing the village, we ride past a magnificent castle, castle Pichon-Longueville.


Château Pichon-Longueville

We knock at a door, close to the village boundary:

« Good evening, we make some cycle touring in electric bike. Would it be possible to recharge the batteries of our bikes at your home this evening?

– Sure, come on in! »

While we are plugging our batteries, Francois asks us where we are going to sleep.

« We will just ride around and look for a place where to set up our tent.

– Or you can set up your tent just right here, in the garden » Francois says.

We accept with pleasure and grab the tent. Our lucky star has not given us up and led us to this heaven of kindness.  We are almost done with the tent when Francois comes back, and we spontaneously start talking.

« Let’s go talk inside, we will feel more comfortable »

We accept with pleasure and follow Francois inside. There we meet his wife, Virginie, who says with the same spontaneity :

« Do you want a drink ? »

We accept with pleasure and admire this couple who lavishes us with their generosity. Without any discomfort, we converse as we have known each other for years. Wine fills our glasses straight after it gets “low tide”, extending this great evening. It is only at 11pm that we decide to take off, drunk with such a nice welcome.

Thank you François and Virginie ! We will cherish for a long time the memory of this evening.


Merci François et Virginie !

******************

To be continued



Day two

0 comments Add a comment


No comments yet.

Add a Comment





reset all fields