Lot Cycling Tour Part 1

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We arrived in Gourdon at 3 on the train from Paris on the Sunday - I was not feeling too good as the train rushing past all the close greenery when cutting through the hills had made me a bit travel sick. John from the cycling tour was waiting on the train station and we found out we had traveled down with another aussie who was doing the same tour as us, Pip. The area is absolutely beautiful - obviously a good time of the year with everything green and fresh = particularly after spending time in Mykonos and Paris. We drove through Gourdon village itself which is a lovely village with lots of stone buildings - there was a bit of traffic around because they had a farmers/trade expo or fair on. John and Aileens property where they do the cycle tours from is in a really great spot. They have got a few old stone buildings including their own house and a couple of big barns, one of which they have converted into guest accomodation - they have about 2 acres of land surrounding it and faces a wood so feels pretty remote even though a little village is only a few hundred metres up the road - its really quiet - no car noises here. It turned out this is a pretty small group this week with only four of us - including Connie an American girl. We have all got along pretty good so far except poor Connie probably cops it a bit with the three of us being from Australia and having our own unique sense of humour! Anyway we have now had a couple of days worth of cycling - we did about 46km the first day - John breaks up the kilometres with pretty regular stops so it never feels like you have been cycling for too long. Day one we went to Domme - stopping for a cuppa at an English couples tea house along the way in Daglan - for Lunch we stopped in at Castlenaud. Paul and I shared a mozarella and tomato salad = we have been having as little as possible during the day as Aileen cooks us AMAZING three course meals at night which have so far easily been some of the best food we have had on our trip. After lunch we cycled to Beynac which is a village right on the Dorgogne river with a 13th century castle on top of a very steep hill - the village is built into the side of the hills. Good to walk up it and stretch out the legs after a few hours riding! We went into the castle as they have restored pretty much and was very interesting - the only problem was the tour was in French so we couldn’t understand what the guide was saying so we did most of the exploring on our own. The views over the valley from the top turrets was incredible. We then cycled to Domme past the beautiful La Roque. Another medieval village that is really well preserved and still lived in. The ride up to Domme which is a bastide town at the top of another hill was only 2km but pretty much straight up - three of us decided to tackle it as mostly John meets people down the bottom and drives them up in the van. Was a good challenge to end the ride and I didn’t feel quite so bad about chowing the chocolate and raspberry dessert down at dinner time!
The second day we didn’t start out from our place but rather John drove us to our starting point in St Pompont - was a pretty long mostly uphill morning ride through lots of farming area and woods - really nice. We got into another medieval market town for lunch - Monpazier - lovely lunch in the town square in a café/ restaurant. Then another ride into our final stop at about 4pm which was another beautiful village with a medieval town centre and street with lots of shops. We have found the French way of running business so fascinating - at lunchtime we were looking for a bakery to just get a baguette or sandwich but because it was 12.15 the “boullangeries” or bakeries are all shut for lunch! When we got back to Johns place Paul and I went for a walk with John and his dog in the fields around his village - such a beautiful place = he showed us an ancient Roman acquifer type thing in the side of the hill which the village uses as its water supply - was really interesting. We had another lovely dinner last night but I think I went a bit overboard on the duck pate which was part of the first course and have suffered a bit this morning! I also have a pretty sore butt - we have been promised a fairly easy riding day today so hopefully it won’t be too bad. My lower back has so far held up which I am very grateful for.

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