Bikepacking The Car-Free Greenways Of France

I'm riding the Eurovelo 3 from Paris to Bordeaux and I'm only a couple of days away from my end destination the wine region of Bordeaux. This specific day is a Sunday and in France this usually means a little bit of logistical problems since most of the supermarkets and restaurants are closed. But it being a Sunday also means less cars out on the roads. Or does it? Maybe it doesn't matter that much since the route I'm taking goes mostly along wonderful lush greenways. So join me for a great day of bikepacking in France. Good morning and welcome to the morning packing chaos of a bikepacker. Just look at all the mess I have on the table here. I'm just glad I have picnic tables wherever I go on these campgrounds. Today is going to be a bit of a special day. It's a Sunday so it's going to be pretty difficult to get a hold of things to eat. The supermarkets, most of them are closed but some are open but they close at around 12. So I better make my purchases before 12 o'clock. I've actually found a pizzeria down the road that's open in the evening as well. The goal of today is first in the morning to make it back to the Lascande Brick or Eurovelo 3. And then make my way south towards Bordeaux. I only have about 150 kilometers until I'm sort of in the Bordeaux region. But when I get there I'm gonna do a little bit of a detour and go to Saint-Emilion. Which is a very nice little medieval town with world-famous wineries. Behind me here is the Chateau de la Rochefoucauld. Like I told you before the bad thing about it being a Sunday is that the supermarkets are basically closed. Just a few are open until 12. But the good thing about it being a Sunday is that there's virtually no traffic at all. And I've found this great road that goes through the woods here in the morning. I just punched in my coordinates in Komoot. And Komoot made a route for me down to Anguilleme which is the next major town where I'll join up with the Eurovelo again. I'm about 10 kilometers away from Anguilleme and that's where I'll probably find a supermarket and get some lunch for later on today. There's also quite a distinct change in the weather today. We're starting to have an overcast in the sky here. It's supposed to start raining tomorrow but I think this is just a prelude to it. But the good thing about that is that it hopefully won't get as hot in the afternoon as it has been for the last week or so. 33! New record! And just as I enter this town I can actually feel the first raindrops on this whole bikepacking trip come upon me. So hopefully it's just a short one. And just like that we're back onto the Laskandebrik or the Eurovelo 3 again. Feels kind of comforting to see all these signs again and the designated bike lanes here. And that was the classical car parade of the day. Seems like a recurring theme here in France. I didn't realize it at first but I've kind of missed riding on these hard packed trails along a river. Since the rivers are kind of curvy they take a little bit more time. But they're super flat so you're able to maintain a pretty high average speed. Plus they're shaded from the sun. So I think I'm gonna stick with this one for a while here. Finally I found a picnic table. I've been looking all over and since it's a Sunday they're quite taken. People are out walking, jogging and biking. So I'm grabbing on to this one. At many of the locks or écluses as they're called in French. You can find a café where you can sit down and have a cup of coffee. A bit of lunch or even a glass of wine if that's your taste. But really nice small places like the one that I'm at right now. Like I said I really love riding on those hard packed sandy trails. But it comes with a price. Take a look at my bike over here. What it looks like after about 20 kilometers on one of those. If you compare my water bottle on top which I've rinsed off. And this is the one that's been close to the trail. So if it would be raining I would stay off these kinds of trails. I think it would be kind of a misery to go on them when that smooth silky sand is wet. It's gonna be a big problem. So during the last couple of days here there have been plenty of these hills that you have to climb. That are maybe 15-20 minutes long. And my trick to be able to climb them is to just put in a very low gear. And have no prestige at all. Just that you're gonna get up on top of it. It doesn't matter how long it takes. I think it's better to just pedal slow and save your legs. The worst thing, for me at least, is when I take a higher gear and pedal a bit too hard. And get lactic acid in my legs. That's usually the worst thing I can do. Because then I'm gonna feel that for the next hour or so. See, now we're up. No biggie. Just took about 50 minutes. And of course when you think you're in the clear. You realize that that was only like a middle plateau. So that was only the beginning of the hill. So here comes the rest. So I think we've officially entered the Bordeaux wine region. It seems like an old abandoned railroad that have made into a bike path. Me likey. These ones are one of my favorite paths to go on. Because they're so smooth. And generally not that many up and down hills. Or there can be uphills. But they're not that steep anyhow. So I hope I'm gonna be able to follow this for the next hour or so. And talking about the future. I think it's about 20 kilometers to where I'm planning on staying for tonight. And there is actually a campground about 10 kilometers from here. But it has gotten so so bad reviews. So I'm not taking my chances on that one. Okay we're crossing a road here. It seems to be fine. But the good thing about that town is that they seem to have an open pizzeria. So I'm gonna check that out and see if I can eat some dinner. In that town that's about 10 kilometers away from here. Hopefully get some food in me before I head further south to the town with the campground. Man this is great. We're both shaded from the sun. And it's been uphill all the way since the last town. But it's so very gentle sloping upwards. So you hardly ever notice it. I'm even increasing my average speed while going up. So I'm just praying that this greenway will last me the rest of the day. I'm at 92 kilometers in for the day now. And I aim to do at about 110. That's where the campground is located sort of. And I'm feeling a lot fresher today than the last couple of days. I don't know why really. Maybe it's because I've been doing a lot of cycling in these tree shaded areas. Plus I don't think the temperature hasn't been that high today as it has been the rest of the days. I'm thinking that it's probably been around 33 tops today. Still warm but not compared to 43. Otherwise I've basically been doing the same routines. I've been drinking and eating about the same. The only thing I've done different about my food and drink intake during the last couple of days. Is that I've bought an apple juice bottle in the morning and been drinking it throughout the day. And it's refrigerated when I get it. So it stays sort of cool throughout the whole afternoon. So that's nice to have some sort of comfort in the blazing heat. But that's done wonders for my energy levels in the afternoon. Plus I also guess that it's some sort of acclimatization to the warm weather. This is the seventh day on this bikepacking trip. So I think my body has sort of gotten used to the heat now. And that's another thing when people go on bikepacking trips. Sort of struggle in the beginning. And it takes like three or four days to get into the rhythm. For me it took like five or six this time around. Just watch my earlier videos from this bikepacking trip. And see how grumpy I was during day one and two. But now everything is fine and dandy. Pizza is closed. I have to continue and see if we can find something else along the road here. It doesn't look promising. Everything around this square is pretty much shut down. It's a Sunday evening. Well of course the only restaurant in town was closed as well. So I made it to the campground. However I didn't find a restaurant on the way here. Everything seemed to be closed. It's the way it goes on Sundays I guess here in France. And this was the cheapest campground on the whole trip so far. And I think it stayed that way. Because tomorrow I'm already scattered out a campground that's between Saint-Emilion and Bordeaux. And according to its website one night for me and the bike and the tent is 23 euros there. So quite a big difference from the eight or so I've been paying so far. But I guess all of the campgrounds I've stayed in basically so far have been these camping municipal campgrounds. That are basically the municipality that runs them. So they're kind of low-key. You don't pay that much to stay there but the amenities aren't perhaps the most modern either. And even though the showers and bathroom were pretty run down. This campground has one thing going for it. And that's the view of the valley over here. Pretty remarkable. So the one that I'm going to tomorrow has a swimming pool and water slides and everything. And believe me I have my swimming pants ready. So I'm looking forward to taking a dip in the pool. Probably the last campground here on my trip in France. And I did another sort of big day today as well. I think I made 110 kilometers. But as I said throughout the day I felt kind of fresh. And one of the reasons is probably that it wasn't as hot as it has been. During the last couple of days here. And a lot of the ride, perhaps half of it, was in these shaded green ways. So I was able to stay away from the sun for most of the day. And we even got a couple of drops of rain when I passed through Anguilleme. So that has put me in close proximity to Saint-Emilion. Which is one of the highlights for me during this trip. I think I'm only about 50-55 kilometers away from there. So hopefully I'll be able to make it there till about lunch tomorrow. And explore the town. It's sort of a medieval town center. But it's most famous for its world-class red wine. It's one of the premium red wines in the whole world. So if I'm lucky I might be able to go on a little bit of wine tasting as well. But I haven't booked anything. So I'm just gonna wing it and see if something is open. And after Saint-Emilion I plan to cycle on for about 20 kilometers or so. So even if I have a glass of wine I think I'll be able to do that. So I think this was one of the better days of this tour. And if you want to catch up on the earlier days. If you missed those you can start by watching from when I left Paris. A pretty miserable day. But there are those as well on bikepacking trips. And you can watch the whole playlist from this bike trip by clicking the link up in the corner here. Otherwise, until next time. Have a good one.