As I have often said, it NEVER rains in the south of France!!
As I have often said, it NEVER rains in the south of France!!
(Click on the thumbnail photos to see the full size photos.)
Day
1: (July 8 - 65 km) As usual we flew the Montréal based
charter airline Air Transat because they have direct flights from
Montréal to a variety of French cities
(Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, and, of course, Paris). (Of
course, all these trips we've taken on Air Transat occurred
before the August 2001 Air Transat plane had to make an
emergency landing on a small airstrip in the Azores in the middle of
the Atlantic with both engines off because they lost all their fuel -
possibly due to negligence or improper training or some other fixable
reason! We may have to rethink our air
transport.)
This time it was to
Toulouse and we arrived at Toulouse-Blagnac aéroport at
about 6:30 AM after an overnight transatlantic flight. As we went
down the steps towards the French customs the crowd in front of us
stopped. After about 5 minutes, with no apparent movement in front of
us, I ducked down to see what the holdup was. There was a single
customs officer there and he was not processing any of the passengers
(not even the flight crew). Another officer came in and approached
the crew captain and the passengers at the head of the line and
explained the situation to them and then went back out of the room. I
managed to make my way over to one of the crew. She told me that they
were dealing with a suspicious package left unattended in the
airport. The plan, apparently, was to blow it up! We were herded into
a large area beside the customs gates and about 10 minutes later
there was a loud explosion. Finally, the customs people came in and 2
hours after we landed we rode our loaded bikes away from the
airport. (Well, actually, with Carol having broken
her hip in '94 and her pelvis in '99 (both icy slips - she needs to
be more careful in Canada's icy winter) and needing braces on both
her knees when she cycles, we always put all 4 panniers on my bike so
only one bike could be correctly described as "loaded".) We
headed north out of Blagnac, crossing the Garonne at Seilh, and
continued northeast, climbing through the Frontonnais vineyards
before descending to the Tarn to cross it at Villemur-sur-Tarn where
we had a pique-nique in a beautiful little
park. We headed west under partly cloudy skies and in pleasant
24°C temperature (that's 75°F for that last little holdout
of Fahrenheit, the USA) through rolling hills of mixed grain farming
and Gaillac vineyards, finally arriving at our chambre
d'hôte (B&B), "Domaine
de Lagarrigue". I had installed the SPD clipless pedal system on
my bike a few weeks before we left so I was at the time a novice
after many years in toe clips. As I slowed to a stop in the soft
gravel of their lane I remembered too late that I was still clipped
into the pedals and down I went! This B&B was a real find! Our
hosts, Michele & Jean-Jacques Vedy, were very hospitable and she
is an excellent cook. We shared our dinner table with the hosts, two
Belgian families and a couple from just outside of Montréal
who had been on our flight. It was a very pleasant evening outside,
overlooking the adjacent grain fields. (today's
route)
Day 2 (80 km): As usual, breakfast at the B&B was very nice. We headed north, climbing immediately towards the wilderness just south of the Aveyron river. After about 25 km, mostly climbing through forest, we stopped in Vaour for a pause café and to pick up stuff for lunch. We climbed for another 3 km to the summit, 360 m higher than our starting point that morning, before an exciting 6 km descent to the Cérou river at Milhars, nearly 400 m below. A tough morning, but we weren't finished yet! We stopped for lunch in the hamlet of Varen with its simple pretty 13th century stone church. After lunch we climbed steeply at first and then more gently for about 10 km before a fast 3 km descent to Monteils on the Aveyron. I was pretty well "out of gas" for the last 12 km along the river into Villefranche-de-Rouergue. We had stayed in this attractive medieval town a couple of times before so we didn't do our usual sightseeing walk but the massive church and the arcaded square on which it stands are really worth the visit. Early to bed that night! (today's route)
Day
3 (59 km): As we headed west after breakfast in town, we began the
climb to the Causse de Limogne. (A causse is a
plateau.) On one hill the pitch became steep so I dropped into
my "granny" gear but, unfortunately, my chain came off causing me to
stop. Once again, I remembered too late that my feet were clipped
into the pedals and so down I went again, this time striking my
helmet so hard on the pavement that it dented permanently.
(Helmets are so unnecessary!) No
major damage (except to the helmet which I replaced
when we returned to Canada) so we carried on to Cajarc on the
Lot river, a favorite spot for us. It was market day in this
attractive little town so Carol toured the stalls, buying a couple of
place mats and groceries for lunch while I watched the bikes and had
une pression (a draft beer) - I'm quite expert at both tasks.
I took the wrong route out of town, putting us on a long 10% climb
over the causse between the Lot and the Célé
rivers. We crossed the Célé (the valley
of the Célé is called the "val paradis "- the
"valley of paradise" - and is worth a ride on its own but we had
already done that a couple of times before) and the route
nationale (one of France's main roads, usually
glutted with high speed traffic and large trucks. Avoid
the routes nationales!!) and climbed
steeply for 3 km to Cardaillac, our destination for the day. We've
been here a couple of times before because Carol's favorite French
restaurant is here: Chez Marcel. The restaurant has been run
by the same family since 1875 and the food is very good but it's the
dining room which has caught her fancy. To
her it is the quintessential French restaurant dining room: large,
beamed ceiling, just the right pictures on the walls and settings on
the tables. We wandered around this pretty little village
("un des plus beaux villages de France" says
the sign as you enter the village - "one of the most beautiful
villages in France"). The remains of an old castle are here.
Dinner was, as expected, excellent. (today's
route)
Day
4 (58 km): It was cool and overcast as we descended briefly out of
Cardaillac but a 4 km climb through lush forest to St. Bressou set us
up for a 7 km descent into Lacapelle-Marival where we had breakfast.
We bought stamps at the post office and sent our first postcard to
our 4 year old grandson. We climbed to a ridge and had a terrific 4
km ride with great views on both sides before descending into Rueyres
where we felt the first few drops of rain. After a 5 km gentle climb
we descended steeply into Bio. It was looking quite gloomy so we made
a "bee line" to the small city of Gramat where we had our lunch under
the awning of a café as the rain began. (We
often stop for lunch at a bar where we buy a drink and eat the stuff
we've purchased at a grocery store.) We waited as long as we
could but it just didn't look like it would stop so we
covered our bags with plastic, donned our plastic ponchos
(I find a rain suit to be a portable
sauna) and headed off on the to-be-avoided route nationale
for 5 km. Traffic wasn't as bad as it usually is on these roads
because the French were still on their two hour lunch. We turned off
towards Rocamadour as the rain subsided. Rocamadour is (to me) a
nightmare. The site itself is spectacular with the village built
street above street on the face of a cliff but the tour buses and
chock-full campgrounds and "attractions" (like the
"Forêt des Singes" - the "Forest of Monkeys") and
junk food outlets give it a seedy carnival atmosphere. I couldn't
escape quickly enough! (Mind you, I had been there a
couple of times before. The village really is worth seeing if you can
turn a blind eye to the hokey stuff around the place or, as a friend
of mine told me, see it before 7:00 AM, before the throngs
arrive.) We had a 6 km winding descent into the canyon of the
Ouysse river and then climbed 2 km to Calès, a small, very
quiet village where our hotel, Le Petit Relais, was located. Except
for the rain, it was a nice, woodsy, hilly cycle. The hotel
restaurant has a young chef who is doing the right thing! Everything
was excellent and the presentation was outstanding, making this place
worth a detour! (today's
route)
Day
5 (57 km): We descended for 5 km to the Dordogne river, crossing
where the beautiful Chateau de la Treyne, a
very pricey inn of the Relais et Chateaux association, overlooks the
river. Maybe in my next life I'll stay there! We continued on to
Souillac where we had breakfast and bought our lunch stuff
(including Roquefort, the magnificent blue cheese
made from sheep milk - one of the reasons I go back to France every
year!) We followed the Dordogne west for 17 km before turning
away from the river to go to Sarlat, a small city with a fine
medieval core. It's crowded with tourists but Carol really likes the
activity. We lunched in the old town and then I did my thing (watched
bikes, had beer) and Carol did hers (power shopped the centre of
Sarlat - unsuccessfully). We headed north out of Sarlat and climbed
to the village of Marquay where we stopped for the day after an easy
ride in 24°C (75°F) sunshine. We toured the village - not
much there. Splendid meal that evening at Restaurant L'Esterel.
(today's route)
Day
6 (51 km): The day started with a fast 2 km descent to the Beune
river which we followed east to the pretty little village of St.
Geniès, built on a hillside with a nice old church and many
other old buildings all with roofs covered with flat stones (called
lauzes) instead of the usual clay tiles. We had our breakfast
here and bought stuff for our lunch. We headed north along the
Chironde and then Coly rivers to the attractive village of Condat-sur-Vézère
with it's pretty little church and waterfall. We crossed the route
nationale, climbed steeply to Beauregard-de-Terrasson and
continued through rolling farmland to Châtres where we lunched
beside a fine (closed) old church high above the road with great
views in all directions. We continued on to Badefols-d'Ans where we
stopped at the Hotel des Tilleuls.
We
had stopped here in 1994 and had a wonderful lunch so we had always
planned to stay in this hotel if we were ever in the area again.
There's a castle here but we walked all around the walled private
grounds and could never get a look at it. We had a very nice dinner
in the old dining room of the hotel. The older (than us) couple at
the next table moved closer to us because of the smokers at the table
next to them and we struck up a conversation. He was English, she
American. They have a house nearby that they had bought more than 30
years ago but they now only visit it a couple of weeks a year. A nice
end to a nice day. (today's
route)
Day
7 (59 km): Once again we started with a nice 3 km descent. It seems
that most of the villages we've been staying in have been at the tops
of hills. (This is not our usual experience.
Normalement, we climb first thing in the
morning!) We had our breakfast in Hautefort by the impressive
chateau. We continued with a series of long climbs and descents,
stopping for a pause café in Négrondes. We
picked up the pace a little as it looked like it might rain. We felt
a few drops at St. Pierre-de-Cole and it was beginning to get
ominously dark so we sprinted the last 6 km into Brantôme. The
sky was by now black and the wind was picking up as we raced into the
courtyard of our hotel. As the first drops of rain fell I ran up to
the hotelier and said "S'il vous plaît, monsieur. D'abord,
un abri pour les vélos!" ("Please. First,
a shelter for the bikes!") He pointed to a door in an old
derelict building across the courtyard and we just got inside when
the deluge started. We huddled in the junk filled building for half
an hour as the courtyard was transformed into a pond. When it finally
stopped we checked in, cleaned up and, despite occasional passing
showers, we wandered around this fine old town. We'd been here a
couple of times before so we didn't bother going into the impressive
abbey this time. There's a pricey restaurant in a beautiful
old mill that Carol had wanted to dine at on this visit but the
menu didn't appeal to her and at those prices she decided against it.
It was Bastille Day and we had hoped to see some of the celebrations
in the town but we were told that everything had happened the night
before. We had a very nice meal in our hotel, the Hostellerie du
Périgord Vert. (today's
route)
Les tournesols - the sunflowers were at their sunny best!
Day
8 (75 km): We set out under sunny skies over rolling farmland with
lots of fields of beautiful sunflowers. By lunchtime we were at
Villebois-Lavalette so we climbed steeply (Carol
cycled all the way; I walked the last half! This is partly because
she's a stronger cyclist than I am but mostly because if she stops on
a hill she can't get started again.) up to the church and then
descended part way down to the village square where there was a fine
old covered wooden marketplace where we had
our lunch. We continued the up and down of the morning, now seeing
some vineyards as well as the grain and sunflowers, until we finally
reached our B&B, the Logis de Romainville, near Roullet. Our
hostess was the charming Francine Quillet who was justifiably proud
of her restored and renovated farmhouse which has been transformed
into an elegant chambre d'hôte. Carol was thrilled with
the accommodations. The décor was beautifully done,
reflecting the panache of the hostess. Unfortunately Mme
Quillet does not offer table d'hôte (evening meals) on
Sundays so we had to walk down to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Monsieur Quillet (who, unlike his wife, spoke no English) warned me
that the restaurant had pretensions of greatness that were quite
undeserved. He was correct. (today's
route)
Day
9 (93 km): Good breakfast at the B&B. We decided to take a more
roundabout route to our next stop, another B&B. When I told Mme
Quillet this plan, she called it the "route des
écoliers", the meandering route school children would take
to school if they wanted to postpone arriving. We're only about 35 km
east of Cognac so there were vineyards everywhere.
(The cépage
(type of grape) in the
Cognac region is ugni blanc. We tried the wine made from the
grapes here once - it was thin and acidic. However, once distilled
and aged on oak casks using tried and true methods, this undrinkable
wine becomes the ambrosia that is cognac!) By noon we decided
to stop at one of the producers to taste their wares. We chose the
elegant estate of Ragnaud-Sabourin in the Grande Champagne region,
entering through a gate into a large courtyard.
We were ushered into a nicely furnished salon by an elegant
woman of about 70 years. A marble topped coffee table was slid open,
the 9 bottles of cognac inside were lined up
on the table top and 9 brandy snifters were placed in front of the
bottles. The cognacs ranged from 4 year old V.S. style up to a 65
year old masterpiece. I told the woman that because I had about 50
more km to cycle that day I would have to pass on tasting all 9. I
chose to try a 10 year old V.S.O.P. style, a 20 year old Napoleon
style and a 30 year old X.O. style. (Carol describes
the taste of cognac as "paint thinner" so she passed on this
wonderful opportunity. She's wrong, of course. It's
scotch that tastes like paint thinner!) The nose
and the taste softened and became more subtle in the older samples. I
decided to buy the 20 year old at 275 francs (about $55 CAD or $35
USD), less than half what it would cost at home. After being
reinforced by these 90 proof "pick-me-ups", we headed north across
the Charente river just west of Cognac. We stopped at another
producer to pick up a bottle of Pineau-des-Charentes, a favorite
apéritif made by mixing unfermented grape juice with
cognac. (We often have it chilled in the cavity of a
just seeded half melon. It's wonderful!) We made our way to
St. Martin-de-Juillers where our B&B, the Maison
Campagne, was located. The B&B was run by an English
couple and all the guests (about a dozen) were from England except
for us. The meal was English (steak pie with gravy, etc.) but very
good and we were hungry after our long day in the saddle. Our hosts
had been running this B&B for about 10 years. He told me that
they had been ticking along, just breaking even, until they set up
their internet site about 3 years ago. Now they're turning people
away! We certainly did almost all of our bookings this
year over the internet. I think hoteliers who ignore this source are
going to suffer. (today's
route)
Day 10 (74 km): It was pouring rain when we awakened and had not relented at all by the time we had breakfast and loaded up so we covered everything in plastic (including ourselves!) and headed west towards St. Jean-d'Angely. Because of the rain we chose the most direct route but that put us on a busy road which we had to share with 18 wheel Volvo diesels which showered us with spray as they passed at high speed. We struggled against a wind blowing the rain at us for the first 20 km until we turned north on to a smaller road and escaped the heavy traffic. The wind was still strong and across the road but was now pushing us along a little from our left quarter so the rain was no longer driving into our faces but it was still pouring. At about noon the sun appeared and the rain stopped but only for about 10 minutes as another squall swept in . We stopped at a restaurant for a bite to eat near 2:00 PM. When we set out again, the rain had finally stopped but the strong wind continued. We stopped for a coffee in the pretty little town of Coulon. The region west of Coulon has been reclaimed from the sea and is crisscrossed with small canals, much like in Holland. They call it the Venise Vert (the "green Venice"). A short sudden shower swept through while we were stopped but the sun reappeared finally for the last 8 km to our hotel near St. Remy. It had been over 70 km in awful conditions! The strong wind continued through the evening. This was our worst ever cycling experience in terms of rain and wind. If we had not been committed to meeting with our friends the next day we would not have cycled that day. (today's route)
Day
11 (46 km): It was raining when we left our hotel room but when we
walked outside after checking out, the sun was shining. After 2 km we
rushed into an open shed to escape another sudden shower. We put our
ponchos on but as we headed out, the rain stopped. This was to be the
pattern of the day. 
We
were headed north and a fierce west wind blew rain
squalls over us all the way to La Chataigneraie where we were to
meet with our travelling companions. Our ponchos were on and off a
half dozen times through the ride. A couple of times we huddled
beside small clusters of shrubs on the west side of the road as the
wind drove the rain over our heads across the road. Unloaded, Carol
was struggling to stay on the pavement so I tried to provide a buffer
between her and the wind where traffic permitted. We managed a couple
of km of wind-sheltered drafting behind a tractor and wagon early in
the ride and at Foussais we joined some locals at a bavette
(literally a "bib" but in this context a place to
gossip) where we sipped a plastic cup of rosé
and waited for the latest shower to pass through. We climbed for 7 km
to La Chataigneraie, arriving there at about 1:30 PM. It was then
that we learned that our good friends Peter and Heather Stark were
not coming with the others because of a family illness. Too bad.
They'll be missed. We walked into town to look around; not much there
although the old church looked interesting (but closed). Chris and
Sue McD. arrived first at about 5:30 PM, Patty and Sue F. about a
half hour later. They had experienced the same rain and wind for the
past 2 days that we had but they were cycling more into the wind as
they came south to the rendezvous point from Nantes where they had
landed from Canada. All 4 were pretty tired but they
recovered after a shower and a change of clothing. Everyone was
discouraged by the awful weather. The weather outside was still too
unsettled to eat on the terrasse so we had a very good meal in
the dining room of the hotel and an early "lights out". (today's
route)
Select Part 2: Pays de la Loire