This small lane near Limoges (Haute-Vienne) is typical of the small secondary roads of France. They are shown as narrow and white on the 1/200000 scale Michelin maps and they're the ones you should be looking for. As you can see, since Carol broke her hip in 1994 (on the ice - not cycling), she no longer carries panniers (they're all on my bike) and she has abandoned the dropped Maes-style handlebars in favour of a straight bar with bar ends.