According to his own account, the prince left Bordeaux to join his army assembling at La Réole, probably some 8,000 to 10,000 strong, on the eve of the Feast of the Translation of St Thomas Becket, Wednesday 6 July 1356. The obvious route from Bordeaux to La Réole would have been the reverse of that taken in December, along the river Garonne and through St-Macaire. He had forty-five miles to cover and he probably arrived on the Friday or Saturday.

The French seemed to have assumed from the assembly at La Réole that there would be a rerun of the previous autumn's chevauchée. Jean detached forces to reconstitute the count of Poitiers' army at Bourges for operations in the south, and measures were ordered to enhance the defence of towns in the Languedoc.

However, on or about 22 July the prince left La Réole and moved forty miles north-east to Bergerac. Although we do not have an account of his route from La Réole to Bergerac, it would have taken him across low-lying land scattered with numerous castles and almost certainly through the bastide of Monségur.