Cognac France

Text and photos by Christine Mcdonnell

‘Let’s go for a bike ride, children?’ Thoughts of sunny days winding through country lanes with smiling faces go through your mind as you pump the tyres up and chivvy everyone out of the front door. The thing is, that it doesn’t always work out like this. Adults and children will cycle at a different pace, parents are constantly having to watch over their offspring, and what seems like a grand family adventure can turn into a trip to the local park rather than further afield.

For the past fourteen years I have taken over 300 families on week-long holidays. They started with a week on a campsite, but latterly I have been hiring châteaux all over Europe, with the following account being a wonderful week in the Charente Maritime Department of France.

Owned and run by an English couple, Château Clerbise started life as the main house for a Cognac estate, but has been lovingly restored to provide accommodation for forty-two people - the ideal size for eleven families to enjoy a week in the sun. We arrived on Saturday and immediately the children dispersed, mostly into one of the three swimming pools provided, leaving the adults to settle into the place, open a bottle of wine and catch up on life.

The formula to these holidays is simple but very effective. I provide maps, route sheets and gpx files. In return, everyone gathers at 9.30am with their bikes, ready to explore the local area. On Sunday, we headed north to cycle the lanes around Pons. All around were sunflower and maize fields as we headed through Avy and onto Perignac. Nearly all of the families had been on one of these holidays before and so were comfortable in each other’s company but, equally, veryone was welcoming to anyone new. Forty-two on the road sounds a lot but we quickly spread out along the quiet French lanes. Groups formed, mostly children of similar ages and abilities, teenagers at the front and younger ones behind, all under the watchful eye of parents. To me this is the real joy of these holidays. At home children will pedal quite slowly and require encouragement, here even the pre-teens keep up a pace that’s suitable for adults and children alike and can easily cover 30 miles in a day. We lunched by the church at Berneuil, before arriving at Pons and its magnificent Donjon and equally impressive ice creams at the café. Back at the château, the pool filled with children whilst the adults got ready for dinner. Although we could self cater, for a treat we’d hired a cook, so Peter the Danish chef prepared a French meal in the château. Salad, followed by steak and potatoes topped off by a creamy dessert: all very delicious.

Monday took us to Cognac. More sunflower fields and I’m sure the teenagers were even faster than yesterday. Surely the hours on pool inflatables was wearing them out, even slightly? But years of training had taught them to wait at junctions, allowing us to stay together. Cognac was accessed via a quiet route from the west and having taken an off-road track along the river we split for a few hours to explore the town. The trick now was to be the first to spot a good café and order a coffee, as very soon fellow cyclists would converge from all directions. Then back through Ars with its Roman church and inevitable photo opportunity for Facebook, everyone headed back at their own pace to the château for a BBQ and a bit more snooker, as yes, there was a full-sized table.

The coast was close but not quite close enough to allow us to get there and back easily. So on Tuesday we loaded the bikes onto cars planning to start at Epargnes so we could get to the beach. A short drive later with the bikes unloaded, we descended towards the Gironde and the coast. Talmont has

Chateau de Chaumont

The fortress of Chaumont-sur-Loire was built around the year 1000 to keep watch over the border between the counties of Blois and Anjou.

It was owned by the Amboise family for a good 500 years, and it was Charles II d’Amboise who turned it into an ornamental château in the Renaissance style, with sculpted decoration becoming the major feature of its outer façades.

Aquired by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire has become an unmissable site within the spheres of art and gardens. The triple identity of the Domaine : Heritage, art and gardens make for a unique visit within the circuit of the Loire Valley castles

To learn more go tohttp://www.domaine-chaumont.frTEL :+33 (0) 2 54 20 99 22

56 BIKE MAGAZINE MAY 2020

FRANCE

a great ice cream stop. Much like Castle Coombe in Wiltshire, it is a village where tourists mingle around restaurants and gift shops. However, the church by the headland with its graves appearing out of the dirt was a memorable sight.

France is developing a West Coast cycleway and we picked this up heading northwest as it followed the coast along a dedicated hard-packed cycleway. Sheds of stilts with fishing nets littered the coast after which we headed back inland at Meschers, but not for too long as we dived left and down to Suzac Plage where we spent two hours enjoying the sea and sand. Cutting through the woods and a sandy track, we headed back to Epargnes passing yet more fields of sunflowers with expansive views. Back at the château the adults relaxed on the terrace, wine in hand.

After three days on the bike we rested. Wednesday brought trips to the beach or Decathlon; the mother of all sports shops, but it was the château environs that held most as we relaxed in the sun. I’ve found over the years’, that for family holidays, a day like this is necessary. Not because the children are more tired out, but because they look forward to hanging out with friends. Away go the computer games and out come the footballs as they rediscover childhood pleasures.

Jarnac lies to the east of Cognac with the Charente River flowing through it. We headed here on Thursday with bikes strapped to the cars. From the brightly coloured Town Hall we pedalled east along the northern bank, passing through many small settlements.

Chateauneuf arrived and we dived into its cafés, sending the teenagers out in search of a boulangerie. Coffee and patisseries consumed, we noticed the ideal group shot opportunity, so we lined the steps of the town hall, waved and cameras clicked to record another year passed. Chateauneuf is a river crossing, so it was close to the southern bank that we now went. Arriving

at the riverbank a jetty presented the perfect picnic spot, so as folk ate their picnics, a number of us tested the water, along with the eels and small fish munching bits of bread. We continued along the riverbank, with its white, hard surface. It was glorious and ended with a push through a field which seemed a fitting end with comedic comments about the Rough Stuff Fellowship ringing in my ears. Back at Chateauneuf we headed west climbing out of town before a lovely descent back to the valley floor and back to Jarnac. In the evening, washed and scrubbed up, we headed to Pons for a meal at the Café du Donjon where a long table groaned under duck salad, salmon or beef, in the shadow of the enormous floodlit Donjon.

Our last full day and we were finding out that even this far south, Western Europe in August can be a damp place. There was no chance of a cycle ride for some, while seven hardy parents braved the horizontal road – partaking on the route to the coast and loving every minute of it. The children, figuring that the pool was dryer than outside, splashed about with the inflatables whilst the rest played games indoors.

Our final evening arrived. So many cyclists and a snooker table, a competition was inevitable. The snooker tournament neared the end and the semi-finals were a tense affair as randomly selected couples booked themselves into the final for the honour to win a tin of local biscuits for the journey home.

Another holiday soon finished, with all of us wanting to come back next year (these holidays are like that!). Initially they bring together a group of strangers with a common theme. Within a few days that roll into years, friendships are made. The most amazing thing I have noticed is that with a wide range of ages, older children learn to be caring with smaller ones and by their late teens turn into well rounded individuals with the help of these holidays. It’s not just about the bike.