Aire-sur-l’Adour, France

83 Miles 3307ft

It was just after two o’clock on the edge of the vast Les Landes forests in south west France it had been raining again and the temperature was a cool 12C. 

I had had enough, it just was not correct, this was more like November in these parts than September. The weather had finally got to me, so I pulled over, stood under a tree in a disused roadside cafe and waited for the rain to pass. Getting back on after fifteen minutes or so the mind was back on the challenge. 

A late start today courtesy of breakfast with Dennis, making it far too comfortable to get going, so I was not in the saddle until ten this morning   

In fact this was not a big problem as we decided last night to have two shorter days today and tomorrow rather than another super long day like the last two and cancel the rest day. 

Starting off cool and damp the roads ran through some walnut orchards and tobacco fields and I then had the opportunity to run by the Canal du Midi for ten miles or so. There were a few boats still chugging along, tourists on board.  

A bit of route rearrangement allowed this ten mile stretch so coffee stop was taken at midday.  

 
At this stage the route then moved into the edge of Les Landes and some extremely quiet roads which made us think more of Northern Scandanavia than France. 

The clouds started to build and it cooled down further so I put on my shower jacket. Hearing the patter of raindrops on my jacket and feeling something on my face I thought the rain had started, but no it was just clouds of small flies that ended up coating my legs and face and ensuring I rode with my mouth tightly shut. It was not nice to feel them wriggling in your nose however and necessitated several stops.  

The threatened rain did arrive and as mentioned earlier I took avoiding action after a bit of a drenching. The roads went through  a couple of small semi deserted villages with their eglise-fortifiee still evident as a result of the 100 years war when this area of Aquitaine was under the English crown. The best was this one at Arx 

 Lunch stop with only 20 miles to go and good terrain and improving weather allowed an early finish before six, a shower and trip into town for a meal and watch some rugby World Cup. 

  
We chatted to a couple of guys walking the St Jacques de Compostelle route, one from Holland, the other Swiss, they had both been on the go since July and will not finish until November!

Aire sur l’Adour’s medieval fair, every French town seems to have one now, was not a patch on Le Puy’s Roi de L’Oiseau festival but they did have some great and well behaved oxen.  

 Tomorrow will see a 65 mile stage into the foothills of the Pyrenees before, weather permitting, the climb of the Col la Pierre St Martin on Monday.