(137km)

After a bad day usually a good one follows like today.Last night and in the morning it was windy and it rained, but I put my earplugs so I slept like a babe. Great invention these earplugs and I praise their inventor! I was in a mood for many kilometers, so after I packed my bike, I headed to the closest bakery for a good dose of breakfast. I think the wind felt petty of  me  though and finally changed direction which made a huge difference at the speed I was cycling and the amount of effort I had to put into it. That was good news for me, as I was hoping to make it all the way to Bordeaux for the night.

Bordeaux is one of the biggest wine producers in Europe, so for most of the day, all I could see around me was vineyards and châteaux. Hill after hill, entire landscapes were covered in vines.

That looks like a good bottle of wine

More and more grapes

Grapes and chateaux

Guess for what those grapes are used for

That's not a chateaux but the nuclear power plant Le Blayais. Luckily no explosions at the time

One of my stops was in Blayer, which has an amazing Citadel of around the 17th century. I went in, had a little look and an ice cream.

The Citadel of Blaye

Inside the fortress

Its big walls

With the wind still helping me go fast, I made it outside Bordeaux at around 6pm. As usual though, it took me a good couple of hours to get in and find the camping, even if it was at the north from where I was coming. I had to cross a big river and I either had to use the motorway bridge, or go all the way to the center and back. After I spend some time looking around and asking for directions, I found a cycle path that lets you go through the bridge.

The big bridge of Bordeaux

The campsite was good and cheap but 10 kilometers away from the centre. I was starving and the camp site didn’t had a restaurant, so I was told to go a couple of kilometers down the road to find a good grill. There I had a Pave Marive which is basically a block of beef meat full of blood, even if I asked to have it well done. I also had the opportunity to have some local wine. It was a Picourneau and I found it a little too fruity and dry on my pallet. Yeah right… I have no idea about wines, apart from the fact that they come in three colours and France makes loads of them. It was good though and felt a little strong, but maybe it was because of my long cycling day.

Going back to the campsite, I met two English cyclists who had also made their way from England, almost the same route with me and they are heading to warmer climates, probable Spain. It was one of the cases where you say the world is small, as we ended up having common friends and lived in similar places.