August 29, 2013
To Le Porge: We leave the grapes
Last night we ate at a strange little place run by someone from Urugauy, Ken had his usual salad and I had paella. The wine we had was absolutely lovely it was a red from the Navarra region in Spain, the grapes Trebbiano and Cab Sav. Rather strange when we were in the Medoc.
Our get away this morning was not as smooth as we would have liked. Firstly when we went to get our bikes from the shed a tour group of about 8 had come in over night, our bikes were at the very back of the shed and theirs had been locked in pairs so it involved a good deal of muscle work to get ours free. We loaded up then oh no Ken’s front tire was flat. On the off chance that this had happened because the valve had been knocked he blew up the tire then notice that the rim had been bent. Off we went and the good news is that the tire has stayed up all day. The first part of the ride was on ‘Le Route des Chateaux’ and once more we were undulating our way through these perfect vineyards with some very impressive Chateaux. There were a couple of gangs of leaf pluckers working, there were 15 in a gang and were doing a job of the same standard as our sheep do on ours. Turning towards the Atlantic the standard of the viticulture became lass perfect and the names were now no longer famous ones. Ken’s obsession with having a neat vineyard would fit in well here (he did tut tut about a couple of the rougher ones as we headed towards the coast).
At around 10.30am we were in the little town of Castelnau-de Medoc and we stopped at the PMU for a Grande Crème. Now Ken comes from a Presbyterian background so has an aversion to gambling and his professional life as a Thoracic Surgeon means he is even more averse to smoking so it may seem somewhat suprising that he loves PMUs so much. For those of you not familiar with a PMU it is basically a gambiling shop but oh so much more. You can bet on the horses, the races are shown live, and all the time on a TV monitor is coming up the latest game of ‘Le 7 numeros bleu’ there is a new game about every 5 to 10 minutes so you can get rid of lots of money very quickly. The owner has to be very quick on his feet particularly if a race is about to start as you can bet up to the last minute and the form has to be stuffed into a special machine. Drinks are being dispensed but it is particularly notable the none of the cliental seem at all worse for wear although many of them are not drinking a Grande Crème. Of the cliental they are like fishermen in that they are virtually all male. There are two distinct types either they look as if they have had a well inflated balloon stuffed up their shirts or they are extremely skinny. When we visited PMUs on these types of trips years ago they were very unpleasant to be in as the air was blue with smoke but not any more, no smoking is allowed inside . Vast numbers of cigarettes are still being sold but to do their breathing excercises the cliental have to at least poke their heads out the door. But as I said before they are much more than that. Owners, bar men and customers are invariably welcoming even to what must be a real anachronism, an ancient weather beaten female cyclist who only speaks ‘une peu francaise’ . There is a font of knowledge to be had (some may be rather conflicting so don’t rely on it all), the coffee is always OK and the prices are good. The night before last we struck the real jack pot our hotel was part of the PMU, it was on top of it, clean, comfortable and cheap – Ken was in seventh heaven .
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Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,825 km (1,133 miles)
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