St Malo to Nice

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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 was along the side of the River Dordogne and we crossed it several times. We passed thousands of walnut trees this being a major nut growing area. In years gone by tennants used to pay their rent using walnut oil and it was made to export. Apparently it has many health benefits.

We stopped at a picnic stop, for yoghurt and nuts and said "Bonjour"to a lady. She replied "Bonjour, or should it be G'day?". She was from Perth, Australia and touring with her husband. She said they usually left Australia for a couple of months over winter and toured round somewhere. There was a notice board at the side, of the picnic spot, that showed all the different kinds of fish you could catch in the Dordogne, below us. Her husband joined us and said that this was the first trip he hadn't brought all his fishing gear on.

After Souillac there was a slight incline in the road and there was much less shade. Lunch was in the tiny hamlet of Pinsac, sat on a little wall outside the church. Soon after that we had our first major climb of the journey, about four kilometres up to Calès, then a few kilometres down and then about four kilometres up to Rocamadour through the canyon of the Alzou river. It was extremely hot which made it even harder work. Arriving in Rocamadour our hotel was one of the first buildings we came to. We stopped outside for a few minutes talking to a man from Yorkshire. English people always comment on our Clitheroe Bike Club tops that we usually wear. He couldn't believe we had just cycled up. He kept saying "I'm impressed ".

In the hotel the receptionist said we weren't booked in. I told him I had a booking number and he said that didn't matter he didn't have us on the list. Paul then saw the room keys at the side and 'chamber cinque' ' had 'Worden ' written on it. The receptionist then realised he was looking at tomorrow's bookings. Thank goodness for that. He also said to leave the bikes round the back but we weren't happy with this as we had requested secure parking for them. Eventually he relented and let us lock them in a garage full of unused things. After showers we had a walk outside to look across at Rocamadour. We were staying just above the old city . It was very impressive with very old buildings clinging to the cliff side. Very medieval and quite amazing. The hotel restaurant was closed but there was a little bar next door and we went there for ice cream and sat in the shade for a while. We then had a walk further into L'Hospitel, which is the service town for Rocamadour. We wanted to get a better view of Rocamadour and to see which restaurant we might eat in later.

Rocamadour has been a centre for pilgrims for hundreds of years since the well preserved body of St Anadour was found there in1166. Over the years thousands have crawled up its Stone steps to worship the Black Madonna statue which is said to have healing properties.

After more time in the hotel room we walked out to dine and sat outside. It was still lovely and warm but the flies were annoying. Then it was an early night ready for tomorrow which promised to be another hilly ride. We were climbing up onto the Central Massif.

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