From Agen to Bordeaux: the end of our first family bike adventure

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18 September 2022: from Agen to Saint-Pierre-de-Buzet

Cycle routes keep booming in France and the infrastructure is improving fast. In Agen, just before the famous canal bridge, a little bike café doubles as a workshop, and it comes at just the right moment because we need to tighten several parts of our bikes and pump up our tyres. We chat with the young woman running the shop this Sunday; she explains there aren't many staff any more because it's very hard to recruit. She apologises for leaving us to fend for ourselves, but we know enough to fix minor problems on our own.

We cross the canal bridge and pass walkers for many kilometres. By bike or on foot, families make the most of safe cycle routes to go for peaceful outings, something planners often overlook.

In Sérignac-sur-Garonne we park the bikes in front of the town hall to grab a bite at L'Escale. The place is big and friendly, and Clémence makes her usual impression with her big smiles. We eat at leisure out of the sun, which is rather fierce today, before setting off again towards Damazan. The village is unremarkable, but it has two points of interest for us today: our accommodation for the night is there, and it's exactly halfway between Toulouse and Bordeaux.

That means that when we arrive around 3 pm, we've covered half the distance. Travelling by bike has the peculiarity of making time feel both long and so short. The days fly by at top speed while we move slowly. That's the whole paradox of bike touring, and it's why it feels like such a change of scene. Leave for a week and you feel as if you've left ordinary society for a month.

We park our bikes and the trailer in front of a building that reeks of the bourgeoisie. It's a fairly well-kept manor, but its age shows easily. The lady who comes to meet us and runs the place is fairly elderly too. She tells us about the family home she inherited a few years earlier. She's very welcoming and suggests we go for a walk around the adjoining Lac de l'Avison. That's what we do, and we order a pizza at the little beach bar, which we eat that evening in the big dining room of the vast mansion.

Where we slept: the Domaine du Balous is a big, charming mansion. The owner is very friendly and you can store your bikes safely.

19 September 2022: from Damazan to Fontet

Bike touring leads to encounters, there's no denying it. Here, a retired couple who stop us to find out the trailer model and understand the hitch system. There, a young woman who asks where we're going and gives advice on the route. Following the canal isn't very hard, but we listen anyway, and she points us to a nice restaurant in Le Mas-d'Agenais.

We ride for an hour to get there. Like every village around here, it has its share of pretty little buildings and is pleasant to ride through. We park our bikes under the 17th-century corn hall, particularly well preserved. In the welcome shade of this big structure, we meet several touring cyclists. It must be listed in a guide, because people seem to be following their GPS right here. As usual, conversation starts quickly about who's going where, by which route, and the latest anecdotes.

We eat at the Bistro de la Halle with some fun Dutch people riding the route the other way. They're younger than us, don't have children, and wonder how hard it is to travel by bike with a seven-month-old baby. Their questions remind us of our own doubts before leaving, and we realise they were dispelled within seconds on the road.

Another couple asks us the same questions at the campsite in Meilhan-sur-Garonne. Or rather, outside the campsite, because it's already closed and even the café isn't open. That's one of the pitfalls of bike touring outside peak season: many dedicated places are already closed even though it's only late September.

Never mind: we arrive in Fontet around 4 pm and go through a big gate to reach the Clos d'Any, a B&B in lush green surroundings. We're in the company of a group of English touring cyclists. They're all retired and admit they fled England at this time to avoid Queen Elizabeth's funeral, which they find ridiculous. Once Clémence is in bed, we eat and drink together in a memorable evening.

Where we slept: Le Clos d'Any, a B&B in luxurious surroundings.

20 September 2022: from Fontet to Courpiac

Bike touring has two major drawbacks that shouldn't be glossed over. The first is when you realise 5 kilometres after leaving that you've forgotten the cuddly toy at the B&B, which costs you a 10-kilometre round trip. Stéphane takes on the job this morning after glancing into the trailer and seeing that Clémence was indeed sucking her thumb, but without her usual little cuddly toy.

That delays our morning departure and forces us to have a quick lunch by a fountain in town. It's not a big deal, because it's sunny and warm, and we plan short stages to absorb any hiccup without running out of time. The route was starting to bore us and we were longing to finally leave the canal banks, which we finally do on the way out of La Réole. We're still on the V80 from Sète to Bordeaux, but we're now crossing rolling vineyards. Until then the trip had been plain sailing physically, and now we get to experience pulling the trailer uphill. Of course the pace slows, but that's no bad thing as the surroundings are pleasant.

In Saint-Brice we join the Lapébie cycle path, named after a famous local racing cyclist. It's a recycled railway line where you pass disused stations and old level-crossing keepers' houses. The path runs through the forest, sometimes climbing and then descending. We leave it with a kilometre of climbing to reach our accommodation for the day. And this is where the second major drawback of bike travel comes in, especially with a baby. Because when you don't like the place you arrive at in the evening, it's hard to leave, especially in isolated spots like this one.

The Domaine Capiet is charming; that's not where the problem lies. The room is spacious and the immediate surroundings are pleasant. But we have an issue with the owner. As soon as we arrive, she makes disparaging comments about the way Clémence is dressed. We let it go, as we're used to unsolicited comments. But at the meal included in the price of the night, she sits down with us and makes remarks that border on racism, won't accept the mild disagreement we offer and never leaves us alone. She tells us about her problems with her neighbours, with plenty of clichés about Portuguese people. We don't have a good evening at all, and we have to plead tiredness to finally manage to go to bed.

Where we slept: at the Domaine Capiet, which we don't recommend for the reasons given above.

21 September 2022: from Courpiac to Bordeaux