October 1, 2019
Day 8 - Villeneuve-sur-Lot to Valence-en-Agen
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After a good night's sleep, we had a lovely breakfast in the hotel, featuring homemade yogurt and local specialties. The region is known for its prunes, so of course there were beautiful prunes on the table.
Powered by prunes, we rolled out of town on a bike path and then transferred to a quiet road that started the climb up to Pujols, a "Plus Beau Village de France". This designation of the most beautiful villages in France is something we try to pay attention to. If there's one close to our route, we generally detour to check them out.
Pujols was worth the detour, although the climb up required some walking.
We parked the bike at the covered market and sat down for a water break.
It turns out that Pujols is not only beautiful, but friendly, too! We had 3 separate conversations with local people and with some tourists - all of them interested in the bike, us, and our trip. It was a nice break from riding!
We headed out into the hills behind Pujols in the direction of Agen. The hills were pretty gentle, with lots of up and downs. We couldn't power over the rollers in all cases, but we got over a few of them without shifting way down.
Eventually the rollers turned into downhills, and we coasted down to the Canal Lateral de la Garonne. We're familiar with the canal - we rode it on our first ride after moving here in 2015. Robin was happy.
We stopped for lunch in a park along the canal. After restarting, we actually passed someone on a bike! And it was a couple on a tandem - the first we had seen since starting our tour. It has to be said that we had a pretty strong tailwind at the time. But still...
Not all of France is picture-postcard perfect. We had to go past the nuclear power plant in Valence.
Then it was off the canal in Valence and a few KM of small roads to our lodging for the night - the Chateau de Lastours in Espalais.
What to say about this place? It was actually like visiting Grandma's house - if Grandma lived in a castle. Despite the slick website, the decor of the rooms is pretty tacky. Our room had a closet that was unusable because it was full of boxes, a formica side-table, and plastic flowers. Along with some spider webs.
But it was a cheery place nonetheless. We had booked to have dinner and after a shower and rest, we repaired to the dining room where we ate a 3-course dinner with wine, completely alone, served by the cheerful, multi-lingual hotel manager in his rumpled t-shirt.
Very strange.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 371 km (230 miles)
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