First task of the day was to fix a flat. As if to test our luck, Ann commented yesterday that we had completed almost 5000km over three tours and never had a flat tire. Then, pushing our bikes into the apartment I noticed my front tire was low. In the morning it was dead flat, but needed only a small patch for a tiny pin prick hole. Maybe its time to think about replacing our trusty Schwalbe Marathons?
Sticking with our somewhat lackadaisical "Its hard to go wrong with any town in southern France" approach, we ended up in Agen mostly because it is on the right place on the map; a quick train ride to Toulouse and a reasonable bike ride from Marmande. Perhaps not the best strategy but it worked again. Yesterday we triumphantly entered the town over one of the main attractions, the impressive Midi canal bridge over the Garonne River, and today we were equally impressed by the UNESCO heritage Cathedral.
Agen combines many well preserved buildings from over the past 500 years: timber framed brick houses, Romanesque churches, elegant apartments and grand public edifices from la Belle Époque and modern shop fronts in a town centre that also seems to function mostly for those who actually live here, not just the tourists. We wandered the downtown pedestrian streets towards the central market (very new and ugly from outside) where our appetites were whetted as we picked out dishes from the traiteurs, bakery, and vegetable stalls to take home to our nearby, kitchen equipped apartment for lunch. Later we took the self-guided tour map of main attractions, verified the times of trains and bought tickets to Toulouse for tomorrow, relaxed with a drink in a square watching the people and the sunset and came home to warm up the rest of our market purchases for supper of tasty French cuisine.
Susan CarpenterFolks in the area of very proud of their Agen prunes. On more than one occasion, I've been given a small bag of Agen prunes to give me energy while cycling. Reply to this comment 2 years ago
