From the Dordogne to the Gironde

We had 3 wonderful days with Geert and Brig at their house in Mainzac, filled with activities, good food, plenty of drinks and above all, friendship and fun

From Mainzac, in the Dordogne, we almost backtracked west and rode through summer pastures and rolling hills, with plenty of castles on the way to admire

Very gently rolling hills, with a mild headwind, nothing to complain about!

All the way through France, we've been so surprised to find wildflowers everywhere, really beautiful - and great for biodiversity too. No wonder France is a great country for honey!

Gradually we rode through forests again, pine forest but also mixed with a lot of oak. Riding on these good gravel roads is very nice!

We hesitated whether or not to visit Bordeaux and stay for a day, but considering we're both not city people and we clearly did not feel like visiting a city at this point, we found a very nice alternative to cross the Garonne by ferry from Blaye. Face mask compulsory!

On the other side of the river: the Medoc!

Impressive vineyards with even more impressive castles, literally everywhere around us. In this region, on a few km2, you find some of the most famous wine houses of France.

I forgot which chateau this was, but it was certainly one of the very impressive ones.

We camped in Pauillac, and as you can see, it's not only about wine in the Medoc. We had some friendly neighbours, these are the Limousin cows. Great tasting beef, which we generally don't eat however due to its very high carbon footprint!

The riverside in Pauillac. Pauillac town itself was disappointing, you would think that this famous wine name would have a nice town linked to it, but no...
Pauillac is maybe 40-50km from Royan - where we were a week ago... After our Mainzac detour, we're "back on track".

Cycling on these small roads through the wineries, absolutely fantastic - especially with this perfect blue sky.

Another one - just can't get enough of it

On the other side of the peninsula, we found pine forests again instead of vineyards, with incredible dedicated bicycle lanes

This is hours and hours of cycling fun, guaranteed!

Pine trees. You just have to imagine the nice smell, and the sound of the cicadas yourself.

We found a huge, but still nice municipal campsite in Le Porge, close to the ocean, in the pine forest.

Even at 7pm, the beach was still full of people; maybe it was extra busy because it was a Saturday, but we absolutely didn't expect to find this many people!