May 15, 2019
Monflanquin to Baleyssagues
Quiet country roads to where?
Back when I mapped out this part of the trip, I calculated that we could make it back to Bordeaux from Cahors in 3 long days. Then I couldn't book accommodation in Bordeaux for the Thursday night (I think it's the week of the International Wine Festival or something). So I tentatively booked a room at Château de Crécy (I don't think it's as fancy as it sounds because the price isn't fancy) because it isn't far off the Roger Lapébie bike path for an easy morning ride into Bordeaux on Friday. That meant we could do shorter days...or so I thought! Yesterday we decided to go further and today we decided that, since we'd done extra yesterday, we didn't have to follow the direct route I'd plotted. White roads all the way! Well, almost.
I was surprised last night when I tried to book a hotel in Duras. Either there is only one (hard to believe given the size of the orange splodge on the map) or only the expensive one had a room available. None of the hotels we've stayed in have been full. So, rather than pay 100€ (plus 11€ each should we opt for breakfast), I booked a chambre d'hôte in Baleyssagues. The website said it was about 3 km out of Duras but maybe that's as the proverbial crow flies. The website also mentioned it was on top of a hill and that part was definitely correct!
Back to this morning. Breakfast was included in the rate for our room, but it's self-serve. There are two coffee machines (drip and pod-style espresso) with coffee and sugar provided and in the little fridge were milk, orange juice, butter, and two jars of jam. I took the note provided to the nearby épicerie (also the dépot du pain) to pick up our prepaid baguette. Of course, I bought a couple of pains au chocolat and some strawberries while I was there!
We left Monflanquin on a yellow road, D124, as far as Beauregard. Then we wiggled our way west-northwest to Duras on little roads with little traffic. Very nice!
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Once again, we are staying at a house that's in the country and doesn't have an actual street address. It's coordinates are provided on the website and I entered them in my Garmin, which then does its best to navigate us to the point. I'm getting better at this; I didn't have to phone, but that's partly because Al scouted ahead to find the signs.
It's a lovely place here and I'm not unhappy we won't have time to visit the castle in Duras. In fact, I'd be okay with skipping Duras altogether, but I don't want to skip dinner and there's nowhere closer.
So we tore ourselves out of the garden and rode down the hill, along a bit, and up the other hill into Duras. I noted that it was 3.2 km to the rectangular sign indicating the city limits. We explored the city; it's another bastide and there isn't much there besides the castle (which houses the Mairie in addition to the rooms on display) and the former convent (now the one, three-star hotel). Our dinner choices were expensive but probably very good fare at the hotel restaurant, fish and chips at the pub, or Italian at the pizza place. We chose the last.
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We took the opportunity to try some of the local Duras appellation wine. A full bottle is a bit too much and a half-bottle isn't quite enough. We really like the 50-cl bottles available at many restaurants, but here that amount was only available in a carafe. It was okay, but not as rich as the carafe of Cahors Merlot last night (which had been the best part of the meal).
The other reason not to try a full bottle tonight was that we needed to ride back to our accommodation. The Baleyssagues church steeple looked really light and airy from a distance, with big openings through which we could see the sky. I waited until we got closer to try for a photo and was disappointed to learn that there are louvres that block the sky when you're looking steeply up. I didn't want to go back down and up the hill so I'll see how Al's photo turned out.
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Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 782 km (486 miles)
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