The cycle route joins the Canal de Garonne close to the startling Musée de l’Allumette (Match Museum) at Fontet. This place’s port and outdoors recreation centre make it a great spot to stop before starting out on the greenway beside the canal. This stage is calm, but the perched village of Meilhan-sur-Garonne draws you up to it for fabulous views. For a further short detour, visit the town of Marmande, which conceals some surprises.

Le Mas-d’Agenais is the highlight on this stage of the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route. Its church of St-Vincent is an architectural gem, startlingly containing a work by Rembrandt, Christ on the Cross. The wide vista over the Garonne at one end of the village adds to its attractions. At the end of the stage, the cycle track leads to Damazan, a bastide fortified town built from scratch in the 13th century.

The Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route continues along the greenway beside the Canal de Garonne, passing through the very lively port of Buzet-sur-Baïse. You reach Agen itself via one of the longest canal-bridges in France, at 600m. The town is both capital of the département (French county) of Lot-et-Garonne and French capital of prunes… and it conceals many other curiosities, which you can discover in the remarkable monuments in the historic centre.

Leave Agen’s port via a greenway. The way continues close to the Garonne, although the river is rarely visible from beside the canal. After Lamagistère, you enter Valence d’Agen, passing close to former abattoirs superbly converted into an information centre. The town was built as a fortified bastide in the 13th century. Admire its covered market, dovecotes, washhouses and port. Every summer, the show entitled Au Fil de l’Eau une Histoire revives the town’s important past as a port.

From Valence to Moissac, the cycle route sticks to the tranquil canal. The town of Moissac, located on one of the famous pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, stretches out peacefully beside the Tarn River. Visit Moissac’s splendid medieval Benedictine abbey, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its stunningly carved cloisters and one of the most beautiful Romanesque church entrances in southern France.