A New Adventure in France

The canal towpath cycle routes make for comfortable cycling being shady and flat and we’ve explored along the canal in both directions from our campsite. To the east we cycled a few miles to the nearby town of Castelsarrasin and the Jacques-Yves Cousteau marina. This marina/ port, which has existed since the mid 1800s and was subsequently converted for pleasure boats, is the largest on the canal between Bordeaux and Toulouse and has around 65 moorings and facilities for full-time live aboard boaters and also visitors. As well as facilities for boaters there is a small bar-restaurant catered for from a converted bus. There don’t seem to be any specific links to Jacques Cousteau to explain the naming of the port, but there is an attractive bronze sculpture by the Dutch artist Rudd Wackers who lives in France, representing a boat called the ‘Calypso’ in tribute to Cousteau.

To the West we took a longer trip along the canal, stopping first at the town of Valence d’Agen, about 15 kms away. Some of the towpath forms part of the Chemin de Compostelle so we passed many walkers with their wooden staff walking sticks and scallop shells hanging off their rucksacks. The town itself was fairly unremarkable with the exception of some beautiful round wash houses on the edge of the town. These wash houses look almost like something you might expect to see in Pompeii, with terracotta tiled roofs and are such fine examples they are classed as ‘Monuments Historiques’.

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In the hope of somewhere more attractive, we decided to carry on to a nearby village, Auvillar, another of the ‘Plus Beaux Villages de France’. And we weren’t disappointed by this hilltop bastide, despite the long cycle to the top. Auvillar prosperity came from its origins as a port where it was necessary to pay a tax to the Viscounts to pass with goods along the river. The village then expanded up the hillside around the now ruined Château. The village has a beautiful brick-clad clock tower above the main entry gate which leads down to a square, or rather triangle, surrounded by houses with arched colonnades of shops at ground floor level. In the centre is a rare round covered market place with 24 columns supporting the roof and a grain hall with the original stone measures in the centre. Auvillar is also the last main stop in the Atari et Garonne department on the Chemin de Compostelle and its history as a place of refuge are reflected in the small figures of pilgrims that decorate a number of the houses. Definitely worth the detour and we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a restaurant in the village.

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We made good use of our cheap bikes last year and Joe upgraded his to a better bike with disc brakes and lighter frame and used it regularly for exercise during lockdown 2. Claire is still using her original bike with calliper brakes, i.e pads that grip against the tyre to slow the bike down. Joe is fearless (perhaps even reckless?) when going downhill, happiest when going at breakneck speed. Claire proceeds more gingerly and with more use of the brakes. The return route was obviously going to be downhill initially to the riverside port and Joe took a more direct and steeper side road than the one we had come up. Serious use of the brakes was called for to avoid a headlong descent into the river. Nearing the bend at the bottom of the hill there was a loud explosion which Claire thought was a car backfiring. In fact it was her front inner tube exploding from the heat of the over-applied front brakes. Fortunately there was no dramatic veering or wobbling, just a gradual slowing down with Joe up ahead wondering what the noise was. Joe carries a repair kit so the bike was upended to start a repair. Unfortunately, a vital tool would not budge the bolt to release Claire’s front wheel. We started walking with the prospect of a very long walk back ahead of us. About a mile down a cross-country route back to the canal we came across our conversation ‘victim’ for the day and were able to request a tool to release the wheel. A repair was then quickly effected and we were cycling back to camp. A new bike looks likely at some stage – perhaps electric? – but we’ve certainly had our money’s worth out of this one.