France by Bicycle | PART 12: ALONG THE GIRONDE ESTUARY

Our ride on this short section of La Velodysee has been fabulous, but soon we will head inland, and this chapter is our last on the French Atlantic Coast and the Eurovelo 1. This section of our route offers some of the most exquisite scenery we have seen in all of France (which is really saying something)! We leave La Rochelle, but not before learning some hard lessons on VATs and DETAX and the complications of making big purchases (Julianna’s bike) in foreign countries. We head south, Julianna on her new bike, along broad sandy beaches and seaside resorts, reaching the Gironde Estuary, a large inlet that cuts into Bordeaux. The scenery here is magnificent, and we stumble onto Talmont-sur-Gironde, a fabulous ancient church and town that commands an impressive promontory above the sea. Our bicycle tour along the Bay of Biscay is extraordinary and this day really puts the finishing touches on a great chapter of our adventure.

Music:

Accordion and Glockenspiel Comedy – JK Productions
Pond Five
081716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-com
a href=”https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/item/81716572-accordion-and-glockenspiel-comedy-short-version”Stock Music/a provided by JK_Production, from a href=“https://www.pond5.com/”Pond5/a

Unexpected Perspectives – Stefan Belrose
Epidemic Sound

Sona – Valante
Epidemic Sound

Board It Now – Berny Shepard
Epidemic Sound

In the Hotel Lounge – Redeemin’
Epidemic Sound

The Mist – Gavin Luke
Epidemic Sound

Today Is a Good Day to Live – John T. Graham
Epidemic Sound

Kind of a luxury style of bike touring his met just riding here along this European coastline very lovely Thank you hey this is the first day on the new ride got a new bike yesterday and just getting used to her um really like though we’re on our way to the airport right now to collect the detox because we are not a resident of France

So we get our tax reimbursed but we have to go to a little kiosk that’s at the airport to actually get the refund for this so that’s what we’re doing right now kind of held this up in our travel for a day but maybe a day and a half

Depending on how this goes Airport’s only four miles away but we will um we will get the source sorted out and uh I’ll let you know if I fall off my bike we set out into the Beautiful Morning Juliana on her brand new bike it was just one little hitch we had paid

Several hundred dollars in taxes that was all to be refunded a detox supposedly we could claim it at the nearby La Rochelle airport and then we would be sent a refund coming into La Rochelle Airport to get our tax money back on the uh on the bicycle we just bought so we’ve

Arrived here at the Customs tax refund place but it’s closed there isn’t a kiosk as we were kind of led to believe um so we need to wait probably going to end up taking pretty much the whole day for us to get this thing taken care of we’ll see but nothing’s easy nothing’s

Easy okay I think we finally got this uh little detax situation solved here at the La Rochelle airport took pretty much all day coming up on four o’clock now so we’ve kind of lost another day but uh we’re gonna head down to row sport and

See if we can get a room there and hopefully we can start some miles going I found my cat ears they look a little funky but when it’s windy like it seems like it’s going to be today or it has been so far uh boy they really help they just cut

The wind noise down out of your ears and it just really really helps somewhere in the cat ears until this wind kind of dies down greetings from La Rochelle airport in France three months after our ride was over we gave up on ever seeing that refund three months in the day

After it finally came through We woke up in rochefort eager to be on the road again and to get some miles behind us foreign what an interest runs on these pulleys I guess huh very interesting how you doing this morning great good good morning from the uh Ferry heading down towards I think it’s the

Baya Bordeaux or the Gulf of Bordeaux or maybe it’s the Gulf of garon I’m not sure which is the inlet of the ocean that heads down towards Bordeaux in the Bordeaux region so we’re kind of starting to wrap up our tour of the Atlantic the wind has died down

Considerably think thank goodness it was awesome and I still haven’t fallen off my new bike she’s a tough one she’s alive but I think she’s I think she’s very happy look how cool this is it just hangs from this large overarching Palace skims the water very cool I don’t even

Know what you’d call it this very system the platform doesn’t even seem to touch the water we’re just kind of floating above it here it stopped to allow for a shift pass Kendra’s head’s getting prettier isn’t it yes it is look at that pretty Road after a few days of setbacks when Customs issues on the d-tax also the purchasing of the bike we’re finally starting to get some miles going right beautiful day wind is either not a factor or at our backs enjoying life Coolville Village check out these old cannons or what carts of some sort [Applause] so I’m riding down the road at my panties on the front of my bike in the wreck just broke I guess this thing was set up for display and not necessarily tightened down for real use how disappointing

Well we got it fixed goodness rolling just carrying some extra parts and so yeah here’s the thing yeah gotta carry plenty of these and you know whatever varying links you can and with a little washer and washers almost everything comes apart with all these rough roads and bouncing and everything so they’ll

Come in handy for sure Nice wide Road one of the D roads hardly traveled At All by cars makes very pleasant and fairly fast riding huh it is no root buckles at mid-morning we stopped at a Crossroads Cafe for a quick refresher and a bathroom break and there the route suddenly took a turn for the worse One of the few times we’ve been commuted onto a road with no bicycle infrastructure at all busy no Lanes no Trail no options just maybe 10 miles competing with the cars for space trucks have been uh polite and have been slowing down waiting for an

Open time to pass but it’s not a fun way to ride for sure You’ve done much filming today been in traffic it’s nice to come upon a little town right adrenaline he’s down a bit got a rooster statue in this town uh we go left here Lovely Beach out here this is royan and some gorgeous Beachside homes too beautiful day mid 70s dirty light Breeze having a great day of lighting today getting a bunch of miles in feels good our time on levolada say was nearly at an end a route would soon Veer Inland to

Join the route of the canal dugaron and as much as we enjoyed the seaside section we were ready for a change of scenery today we would say au revoir to another chapter in our French Saga just a little stop to have some lunch and we’re at a beautiful beach boy I’m

So tempted to get my feet in there but we’ve got another 20 miles to go had a wonderful sit-down lunch with all the sandwiches that we made from breakfast this morning at the hotel sorry about that folks I know you’re technically not supposed to do that

Eat all of our breakfast all in one shot I guess it’s kind of a luxury style of bike touring just riding here along this European coastline very lovely with all this road I have a bouncy little C path route we’re following what I’m calling the uh bay of Bordeaux but I haven’t seen any name for it on the map but uh very nice very lovely beautiful Seaside that Sun’s just been great the wind has been great it’s been a beautiful day it really has

Been we’ve been able to get a bunch of miles in and we’ve got maybe 10 more to go I don’t know if it’s all going to be on this path or not but if it is that’s pretty cool because this is really easy going riding and we got our favorites hey beauties

Until I find out a bit different it’s the Bay of Bordeaux when we reached the garan Estuary we found a gravel trail that led us along the wide mouth of the river and into a lovely Countryside at some point we stumbled upon the most amazing fortified Village perched Upon A Promontory with sheer

Cliffs that drop straight into the waters below the village was founded in 13th century Aquitaine it can be seen for Miles along the coast let’s check out what this thing is here see if we can find anything out thank you foreign [Applause] Thank you Foreign We picked up some gifts at a boutique shop in the village and then headed out of town as the sun was getting low in the sky and we still had some miles to go foreign we followed the Estuary in a Southeast direction towards Bordeaux and into increasingly beautiful scenery with

Vineyards and a rolling Lush landscape that inspired our love of the beautiful France that we came to see wow this is so beautiful farther south we get the more beautiful it is just breathtaking my God look at this the roads that they open are many people but one’s gone under the night us

Gets so much nicer The beginning Today Day today It’s a steep one so Juliana’s having trouble with her derailleur front derailleur seems to have gotten off Kilt a little bit a little trouble in Paradise we’ll have to check it out hopefully it is bike shop or maybe we can figure out a minor adjustment sure is beautiful out here just entered

Into a whole new region near cognac Skeeters are out of this world they seem to like the beauty too I’m getting bit in the back the arms even though I’m covered we gotta get some speed going here get rid of these things hungry I found something men are interested in a little kielbasa

To get in my back I can’t get them off my back you know all right pretty little Forest Panther wrap up our day we’ve got less than two and a half miles that’s about 400 in mosquito bites And when you see a Veer right via right I think that’s it yeah and we are since we’re going straight hold on let me check before we do anything It’s uh down yeah the brakes are working good how pretty that is Foreign Skeeters are eating Us Alive every time we stop but what a beautiful place after a stunningly beautiful afternoon ride and after a missed turn that cost us nearly three miles and probably hundreds of feet of climbing we made our way into the village of Morton and up to

Our hotel ran by the kindest gentleman who made dinner reservations for us in the town below our place God I hope we can meet tonight very Much yes Lovely Hotel here in I don’t even know where we are I’m gonna go take a little nighttime walk and get some dinner he was kind enough to call in a reservation what a good guy really cool look at this ah smoked up pizza mozzarella Roland got the most beautiful Canard

Smoked duck roasted duck love this little restaurant fabulous hard day writing and this woman is a doll and this food is just amazing and a good bottle of Bordeaux wine Road 48 miles 44 and change 44 and change yep and uh ready for a good meal it’s been a good day

The day indeed Bordeaux here we go Something’s Gotta Give today is a good day