Biking along the Canal Latéral de la Garonne

May 26th and 27th 

During the time of Napoleon many canals were built to further commerce.  The barges moved goods all through France more easily than by horse and cart.  We have been the recipient of the development of these canals because the tow paths they used to tow the barges have, for the most part, been paved and maintained now as traffic free bicycle routes.  We embarked on 2 sections of "Le Canal des 2 Meres a Velo" which is a route that runs from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.  We began at Fontet and ended in Le Mas d’Agenais for about a 25 mile roundtrip ride the first day and then onto Damazan for another 20 miles the second day. The trail is sometimes rough with tree roots popping up and has a little bridge over the canal about every few kilometers.  Plane trees line the canal and as beautiful as it is it does get a little monotonous after 20 or so miles. C'est la Vie! 

Sunday can be hard when trying to find a restaurant that is open but we managed to drive by the bar restaurant Au Bureau.  Bureau means office and so Au Bureau may mean "I'm in the office"...clever.  My salad was superb and Jay opted for another burger he said was great as well.  Normally ordering "American" food is not on our agenda here but the burgers are really very, very good!  

Monday was another challenge in finding a restaurant so we decided on a little pizza place nearby with good reviews.  The pizza was good, the wine...not so much...but hey we were happy and well fed once again.

We parked our cute little Reault Arkana in front of a beautiful old church in Le Mas d’Agenais.

We hope to find smooth riding tomorrow and perhaps a wine tour on Wednesday since this is a huge wine region.