Beautiful cycling weather – sunny but with a refreshing breeze. However the main problem on this route seems to be avoiding starving to death. It may of course be easier in season. No table d’hote tonight so we needed to buy something to eat. Thank goodness we managed to find an open boulangerie in Agen so enjoyed an excellent picnic. The pont-canal out of Agen is splendid. This part of the route seems to be defined by the excellent canalside path and a shortage of shops and restaurants on the canal itself. You can of course strike off into the canalside villages but they are all up fairly intense hills - and of course you are not quaranteed success when you get to the top.We cut off the path for our destination
at the confluence of the Garonne and the Tarn The expanse of water looks almost endless. To leave the path we had to climb a huge flight of stairs and cross a bridge. Fortunately they had provided a groove for bikes so we unloaded the bags and pushed each one up , Laura and I pushing at once. Just before we left the cycle path we managed to find a grocer’s and picked up some tomatoes, cheese and cold meat just in case there wasn’t a restaurant in town. In fact there 
was, but guess what - Weds is the night it’s closed.The chambre d’hotes was in a beautiful maison de maitre where we had airy and spacious rooms on the top floor, the use of a breakfast room to assemble our meal and a little terrace to eat it. The owner was very pleasant. Much less involved than the b and b in Noillac, it was clearly just a business for her, but it was a place I’d recommend.
Mileage to date 543 km
