Day 1 - Saturday

Transfer from the rail station at Anguoleme to Les Eyzies in the heart of the Périgord, and meet up in the evening for a feast of gourmet food at Le Moulin de la Beune.

Day 2 - Sunday

This isn't wine country yet, but it is beautiful. Our cycling holiday takes us over the 'Cingle de Tremolat' where we're treated to lovely views across the Dordogne valley.

We take a lunch break at the lovely Bastide town of Limeuil where the Dordogne and Vézère rivers meet. We end the day at Lalinde, another Bastide and once an important town where the canal took boat-traffic past the rapids of the Dordogne.24 miles / 39 Km

Day 3 - Monday -  Wine Tasting with the Count

Today we enter Bordeaux wine country. We're headed for St Foy La Grand, just the other side of the Bergerac appellation, but en route we visit two very special areas within the Bergerac vineyard. First is Pécharment, locally styled as 'The St Emilion of Bergerac'. This appellation dates from way before Bergerac was similarly honoured, and the growers take great pride in their wines.

We'll partake in wine tasting at Château Tiregand, courtesy of Le Comte de St Exupéry. 

The Comte is a great host and one of the most respected winemakers in the region, he makes wine tasting interesting and a great pleasure.

In the afternoon we continue our cycling tour through Monbazillac, home of exquisite sweet wines. These wines are extremely difficult to make. The yields are tiny, and as you'll see, the vignerons are justly proud of their wines. Dominique Vidal, of Chateau Fonmourges where we'll partake in wine tasting this afternoon, is a specialist with an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject.

We end the day in St Foy, one of the best preserved Bastides in France. En route we pass through Bergerac, with a beautiful 'old town' and a rich history.  38 miles / 61 Km

Day 4 - Tuesday

Today we follow the Dordogne, first passing through the appellation of Montravel.  A single estate can produce wines under five separate "Appellation d'Origin Contrôllée", and at le Puy Servain we meet one of the finest winemakers in the region;  

Passing the 'monument of shame' (the Monument Talbot, where the English Admiral Talbot finally lost The Hundred Years War in 1453) we cycle through Castillon to arrive in St Emilion. We visit Château Belair, one of St Emilion's top wine estates, for a wine tasting and a tour of their amazing underground caverns, and this evening we eat at the restaurant of Francis Goulée.

St Emilion, with its medieval cobbles, gourmet food, centuries-old wine traditions and ancient monolithic church, is unforgettable.   28 miles / 45 Km

Day 5 - Wednesday

Today is a long cycle ride - almost 40 miles. We leave the Dordogne at Libourne and enter the Gironde. We pass through St Andre de Cubzac, birthplace and resting place of Jacques Cousteau and we cycle through Pomerol, Fronsac and the Côtes de Bourg on our way to the Gironde port of Blaye, gateway to Bordeaux.

Our hotel tonight is the delightful Auberge de Porches, where the owner has a deserved reputation for her adventurous cooking - she needs almost no provocation to pull out articles featuring her hotel and its gourmet cuisine. Blaye boasts a huge Citadelle that once protected the approaches to Bordeaux from the English.

Depending on timing today, we can taste at one of the premier estates in this under-rated appellation, Château Peybonhomme-les-Tours, and perhaps at the Syndicat du Vin in Blaye.. 39 miles / 63 Km

Day 6 - Thursday  - The Haut Médoc, the Heartland of Bordeaux.

This is a lazy day.  We cross the Gironde by ferry to Cussac, and make our way to the Bernard family at Château du Raux in the Haut Médoc. This is the popular image of wine-making in France, a family estate producing quality wines as a family business.

The son, Patrick, is a highly qualified wine-maker, and provides a fascinating insight into wine - with luck you'll be wine tasting direct from the barrel. The process of extracting wine from the barrel is fascinating if you haven't seen it before, and involves a drill, a crowbar and an ingenious device that holds a glass and a candle. 

After lunch we'll visit one of the more famous names of the Haut Médoc at Chateau Lynch-Bages, an opportunity to watch one of the finest names in wine-making going about their business. Time and energy permitting, we might also have the opportunity to visit the museum at Mouton Rothschild. At this carefully manicured estates of the Grand Cru Classé in the Haut Médoc it is fascinating to see the difference. Tonight we stay in Pauillac, the world centre of fine wine.    14 miles / 23 Km

Day 7 - Friday  The Médoc. 

Today we 'descend' from the Haut Médoc (literally the High Medoc) to the Médoc.! The landscape changes. Centuries ago Dutch engineers built causeways between the gravel areas of the Médoc and drained the land in between to reclaim the land that we cycle through today, and the gravel deposits are where the vineyards are. Leaving behind the well-known estates of the Haut Médoc we have the chance to visit fascinating estates today.

At Le Tour de By they still use huge wooden vats that are almost never seen these days, and at Château Loudenne we can see how a superbly organised commercial vineyard works. Our final resting place tonight is a return to Pauillac. 34 miles / 55 Km

Day 8 - Saturday

Our cycling holiday ends with an early departure for the train station in Bordeaux. Trains depart from here to Paris.