I have just looked at today's route and felt obliged to pour myself a glass of Saint Emilion......Although Mark started the day in the Landes (described in yesterday's posting), for much of the day he cycled through a number of the Bordeaux wine producing areas, across the Gironde and the Dordogne rivers before ending the day just south of Angouleme.
Shortly after leaving Roquefort this morning, Mark passed an area of the Landes which stood out on the aerial imagery and which, according to Google Earth, is a target practice area for French fighter planes.
....It would seem that the nearest air base where the planes which do their 'testing' in the Landes forest are based, is at Mont de Marsan which Mark passed yesterday....
Incidentally, if you follow the link, you might want to beware of the English translation of Wikipedia pages - it is not always very accurate!
On their northern edge the Landes give way to lowlands surrounding the Garonne and Dordogne rivers and the estuary of the Gironde - Bordeaux wine country!
Cycling from south to north, Mark crossed a whole spectrum of famous wine producing areas... of which more shortly. We have encountered grape vines in many locations along Mark's route - in Europe at the start of his journey, Turkey, Iran, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Portugal, Spain and now France and according to some research I've just done, 71% of all the grapes produced in the world are used for wine.... and the area of grape vines for wine production is growing at 2% per annum!I have struggled to find a map of the Bordeaux wines which is going to be legible on the blog but I think this one should do...
I am not at all a connoisseur of wine but I do find the connections between wine and geography interesting. 
For example, in the south of the Bordeaux wine region is the area which produces Sauternes, a sweet dessert wine. This area lies just to the west of Langon where Mark crossed the Garonne this morning. The intense sweetness of the Sauternes wine is the result of the grapes being affected by a fungus that is commonly known as noble rot. In the autumn, the Ciron river, a tributary of the Garonne, produces mist that descends upon the area and persists till after dawn. These conditions are conducive to the growth of the fungus which dries out the grape and concentrates the sugars inside.
Across the river and in the area between the Garonne and the Dordogne is the region which produces 'Entre Deux Mers' dry white wine. Literally 'between two seas', the name refers to the two great tidal rivers which bound its vineyards. The wine producers of the Entre deux mers have a good website (click image to link)
Having cycled through the Entre Deux Mers territory, Mark reached the Dordogne at Branne, 
where I reckon he must have crossed the river by this bridge before heading into the area referred to the 'right bank' (of the Dordogne) before its confluence with its tributary, the Isle, at Libourne. 
The right bank region is associated with red wines such as Pomerol and Saint Emilion (hic!). Here on the right are some vineyards in the vicinity of Saint Emilion and a view of the confluence of the Dordogne and the Isle at Libourne ..... 
North of Libourne, it is still wine country - mainly reds and belonging to what is termed the generic Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur appellations. Mark cycled a lot of miles through fields like these today! And tomorrow, he'll be nearing Cognac country....
However, as I shall be preparing to depart for Paris, I am delighted to say that Alan Parkinson my 'guest presenter' who kindly blogged during my absence over Christmas while Mark was in New Zealand and the San Francisco area, has volunteered to Geoblog the next couple of days on the approach to Paris. There will therefore, be no interruption to normal service! If all goes to plan and technology doesn't let me down, my next posting should be from Paris.
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