A Personal Account of Cycling in the Lot Region of France
Below is a ‘post’ written by a recent traveler with Pure Adventures, who also happens to be a regular traveler with us year in and year out. We love to get these kinds of stories and accounts of our traveler’s experiences. It wasn’t written for Pure to post to the public per se, Patricia just shared it with us. When asked, she said we can post it for anyone to read. We hope you enjoy it too!
As I sit in my lovely backyard with the sun shinning through crystal clear light & the leaves of the London plane tree we planted 35 years ago, and Nora Jones singing, my french memories are so easy to bring into all my senses…………
On the tiny elevator in a Fegeac hotel ready to bike on our first day, wearing my “Made in Hamilton” t-shirt, a man in suit with briefcase says, “Hamilton, Ontario? I have a friend there”. Not my expectation of a first morning in a smallish town in southern France!
John is happy to be cycling in France
Day 1 of biking hitting a 3-4 km hill right out of the hotel & being rewarded with a view of an exquisite valley from a tiny stone village with only the sound of birds & wind. Then a 7-8 km ride down hill to the Lot River Valley. One of the most beautiful winding lush valleys ever. Curves around with wonderful stone cliffs rising hundreds of feet straight up or even out over the road. Little (I mean population 8-35) towns of houses built into the cliff with names like Cadrieu, Puech Luguel & Larnagol.
Simple & delicious crusty bread with always the most intensely rich olive oil no matter how simple the bistro. For the meat eaters, a wondrous variety that we seldom get here & rarely cooked as beautifully. Duck (gizzards…..who would guess they could be delicious?), goose, prosciutto, rabbit & then of course foie gras. And those sauces! A salad never disappointed (don’t think they’ve heard of iceberg), vegetable tarts were heaven (hot or cold) & not in the same category as any quiche I ever tasted! Vanilla ice cream which is my favorite flavour had a richness & intensity that North America doesn’t seem to dare. And did I mention strawberries? They were in season & “Oh My”….tarts, jams, bowls of fresh picked ones at breakfast and at lunch or dinner with a rich whipped cream that defies description. Oh yes…..almond croissants dusted with powdered sugar & toasted almond slices. Those exquisite plain (well at least without filling) croissants reminded me of the day many years ago that my mother & I made them. It was an all day affair, great fun and what a treat right out of the oven. Julia Child would have been proud. Sometime in the next month Avia & I plan to do the same.
We biked hills that wound through forests & meadows & ancient walled stone towns with rivers & valleys below. Picnicked in village squares & by the side of a river or stream & had espressos on patios with vines covering all. The roses were at their peak & absolutely everywhere. I have never seen so many varieties & in such abundance. We biked around the grounds of chateaus, braved roundabouts, and often had many a kilometer where we could bike side by side; not a car for ages and meadows of cows or rolling spring planted fields. Many hills, many kilometers and this repeat of our trip 18 years ago was no disappointment.
Author Patsy and hubby
Lascaux Caves – we have visited twice before & they are as amazing as ever. 17,000 year old creations that are as moving & graceful & beautiful as anything produced today. And so much a mystery…we can only guess.
Stopping in an exquisite little town by a stream called Saint Leon sur Vezere & discovering a beautifully appointed, very small co-op of artists with ceramics, articles carved from mammoth tusks & bones (by a young Frenchman who had played hockey in Ontario & then turned to the much more lucrative occupation of mammoth tusk carving!), and very beautiful knives (copies of ancient designs) made by a vegetarian Viking! His wife makes the leather sheaths they come in and also built their house!! I fell in love with one & bought it to chop & dice & slice my veggies. Now home it’s the sharpest and certainly most graceful design of any knife I own. It will serve me well in the kitchen.
So many people with open hearted friendliness……people kind & gracious to us:
On a tiny road along the Cele River, a 3rd generation young woman beaming with pride & enthusiasm, who showed us around her family’s wheat grinding mill with machines of shiny stainless steel & that pale green baked enameled metal made in the 50’s.
So many waiters who talked with pride about the restaurants they worked in, the food they served. One gave me a free order of roasted bone marrow which I wanted to order but he thought I wouldn’t like (I loved it – rich & delicious!).
So often people stopped to ask if we needed help as we looked at a map or just to engage in a conversation..
The Paris subway worker who, with a smile, simply let us pass when we screwed up in the use of our ticket.
Workers In jobs you & I would struggle with (selling tickets in the subway, cleaning hotel rooms, driving a taxi…) who still served with a smile & patience.
Fantastic Sarlat
Although these didn’t dampen our trip, there were a few glitches………
After a glorious 1st day of biking, Day 2 turned to 6 degrees C & rain. Fortunately a non biking day.
The day before we are to bike to Rocamadour,the 45 yr. old hotel owner where we were says, “ROCAMADOUR!! That’s 70 km & steep hills.” He scares us off enough that we arrange for a van to take us part way. When we saw how relatively short the hill was & how rolling or flat the rest was, we kicked ourselves for listening to him.
Then there was the train strike that no one mentioned!………fortunately another line had a train 4 hours later. AND in the hours we had to kill, we shared a picnic table by the river with a couple from Israel. Great conversation that included their perspective on how overblown much is by the media; that life for most is peaceful & ordinary.
a couple of hotels that were marked 3* and turned out to be a combo of Parry Sound roadside motel (thin plastic cups, hideous decor, tiny towels, hard bed……) and then a restaurant with superb food! Funny.
The time smart-ass me decided to move the distance/speed computer from 1 bike to the other & then of course it didn’t work. A phone call later to the bike shop did get it going, but still! I couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Then there was the first day I forgot to bring with us on the bike, the name of the hotel we were headed to (the list was in the suitcase being transported by cab). Another phone call…….don’t ask to who…….& we got it, but still! My slight redemption was that my 8 year old cell phone worked while there, whereas John’s new Iphone 6 didn’t!
When we nearly miss the train because we are standing at the station 10-12 cars down from where our seats are. The train stops for 2-3 minutes maybe! A run down the platform & then we get on 2-3 cars before ours or we’d be left behind.
The mad dash for about 4-5 km, much of it being a very steep hill, to get to Lascaux before the last English tour. John is sure I’m trying to kill him….definitely me pushing the adrenaline.
And those damn Sunday motorcycle drivers! They insist on passing no matter the curve, no matter what you can’t see. John got so mad he’d ride out by the yellow line & STILL they’d pass.
And then there was Paris!
First afternoon and a stroll through Monceau Park where there were almost as many people as if it was Woodstock……nannies of all ages with 1 to 4 toddlers loving a real summer day, little girls in sundresses skipping rope, grandparents & bikers, young lovers & ice cream cones, joggers & men with briefcases, beautiful young (& some not so young!) women in tight shorts or pants, high heels, that hair they fling around and the people watchers like us.
An art nouveau bistro from 1900, wandering streets at 11pm on a Thursday and you’d think it was noon on Saturday with all the activity. Light until nearly 11.
Frank Gehry’s wonderful new building in the midst of Bois du Boulogne that is simply a joy. So fluid & airy & simply wonderful. Inspired us to watch the SidneyPollack doc on him on the plane. Definitely recommended.
Then happening upon an African restaurant that not only had totally delicious food, but was one of the friendliest places we went to. We were two of 4 or 5 white people there; couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome. Near the end of the evening a young woman walked in who was probably 5′ 11″ or 6 feet with legs that made mine look like stubs. Shorts, 6 inch heels…..she was something else!
A Bonnard exhibit and another of Velasquez. WOW is about all I can say. There were portraits by that Spanish marvel that he did at age 17 that took your breath away. They said way more to me than his much later work when he got into the courts. And Bonnard…..I hadn’t really known his work. His ability to use color where few others would & it simply works……canvas after canvas. There is one called Decor a Vernon of a picnic scene with a large tree trunk (almost no leaves or branches in sight to break the stark straight pole of a trunk) in the foreground that he painted basically lavender. You would think that such a stark large shape in itself wouldn’t work in such a scene, much less lavender, but guess what? It does. He was a marvel.
Mais Oui, je fait du velo!
John being wonderful John always ventures forth in his Hillfield school (Mr.Decker) french, gets people laughing & talking away. With my 2 yrs of Cincinnati high school french, by the end of the trip I can usually understand most of his conversations. I’m hoping that in a couple of years we will rent an apt for 4-6 weeks in Paris and that hope may just give me the incentive to take a class or 2 or venture into the world of conversation. We found that most people by far (even in Paris) to be quite patient & lovely and mostly seemed quite thrilled with any of John’s attempts.
So any of you thinking of biking in France….go for it. It’s wonderful!
story and photo credits: Patricia and John E. of Hamilton ON.
