Thursday 26th September 54 miles Breakfast was upstairs from our bedroom in another lovely room very artistically put together with some very old things. Florence had got me some gluten free bread and there was home made stewed apples, yoghurt and jams. We bought 'trois fromage baguettes ' and yoghurts before setting off. The guide book had said there would be no shops for the next twenty four miles. We had to walk through the market that was on and there were lots of lovely local produce for sale including cheeses, meat, honey, olives, hand made soaps, scarves and jewellery. If we had been in a car I could have easily have bought lots of things. Most French towns have these markets and they always seem busy. Out of town and towards the gorges. The Pont ... read more

Tuesday 24th September 37 miles Breakfast was quite substantial with a good choice of food and 'yoghurts to go'. Before leaving Mende we stocked up on lunch goodies and went off route to find a bike shop as Paul wanted to buy a new chain. According to the guide book there are two good bike shops in Mende and these would be the last we would see until Nice. Paul tried to use his card to pay and it was rejected so he paid with cash. Soon we were back on the route and on the N88 again heading out of town. It was quite busy in places but we kept tucked into the side of the road. After a few miles we left the N88 for a smaller D road and all was quite again. ... read more

Many villages in this area end with 'Olt' which means 'Lot' in the old Occitan dialect. St-Geniez-d'Olt lies between the Aubrac, a volcanic granite plateau and the limestone plateau of the Grands Causses. Breakfast was basic but ok and I did have the "special bread". Back in the room it was washing and sorting things out time before spending some time in Reception where we could access the internet. After a stroll round the town we had a pizza each for lunch. This was more than we wanted really but the supermarket was closed and it was either pizza or a full scale restaurant lunch. The people of this area are known as 'marmots'. According to legend two children befriended a marmot as a pet. One day it ran away and they followed it. A great ... read more

Friday 20th September 39 miles I awoke to many birthday messages which was lovely. Breakfast had a better choice than expected and to be fair the owner had provided some gluten free cereal and gluten free madeleines, which I felt obliged to eat as she hovered around. Cake for breakfast is just wrong! Soon we were ready to go and we found the supermarket first to buy lunch and some more sun cream. We had been using factor 30 but I bought some factor 50 as the 30 didn't feel like enough. This also gave us a chance to warm our legs up a little as we knew it was a steep climb out of the Cèles valley. It was probably about two miles straight up hill and then undulating so quite a strenuous start. We ... read more

39 miles There was quite a decent choice for breakfast so that was a good start to the day. Amongst other things I had walnuts that needed to be shelled by using a nut cracker. I haven't done that for years. I eat a lot of nuts but they usually come from Lidl in a packet with no shells on! We stocked up for lunch at the Carrefour Express straight across from the hotel so there would be no worrying about looking for food later. After a couple of miles, slightly uphill on a very busy road, we turned onto a 'voir vert' following an old railway line and had six miles of flat smooth tarmac all in the shade. The next twelve miles or so were relatively flat and mostly shaded. A section of it ... read more