Saint Sylvestre sur Lot to Moissac 78km

We cycled through rolling hills of wheat, sunflowers and a variety of other crops as we climbed our way from the Lot River towards the Canal Lateral a la Garonne.

We did two big climbs today. One into Hautefage-la-tour which was a very long but not too steep climb.  The second into Puymirol which is the oldest Bastide in the region. The climb was cruel but the views from were spectacular and the photos don’t do it justice. 

The last 30km were on the canal where we had some welcome shade to provide us with a little relief from the heat. 

We are staying with Elodie for a couple of nights where we will rest and recover. The next few days we are expecting temperatures around 40 degrees so we will take a look at our plans and reassess. 

Bergerac to Saint Sylvestre sur Lot via Monflanquin 67km

What a day! 67km with almost 700m of elevation. We had beautiful roads, amazing scenery and some pretty tough hills. Monflanquin was a killer! 

We stopped in Issigeac where there was an amazing fresh food market in a beautiful historic town. Such a lovely start.

We climbed into Monflanquin, one of the most beautiful villages in France.  An amazing place and so glad I got to see it again. 

The weather was again very warm and we struggled with the heat and hydration as the day went on. Amazing effort by everyone today. 

We are camping by the Lot river this evening and head off to Moissac tomorrow to spend a couple of days with Elodie.

Riberac to Bergerac 65km

Another long day in the saddle with 10% elevation and the temperature hitting 39 degrees at one point. 

We rolled farmland and forest along the ridge line which meant we went up and down a lot! The scenery is spectacular and the roads relatively quiet until we get closer to the towns. Riding into Bergerac and seeing the Dordogne river was a relief. We knew our long day was almost over and it is such a pretty town with lots of history. 

Having done this on my own last time, having riding company is sensational. It’s nice to have others to chat with and find shared solutions to often tricky challenges. 

We all have a few niggles which comes with the territory. There have been a few casualties though. My helmet needs to be replaced because it got damaged in transit. The superglue holding my sunglasses together has finally let go so they need to be replaced. The handlebar bag bracket is not repairable so the cable ties are holding for now. And last but certainly not least, my right shoe has fallen apart. It has been glued for now but looks like another replacement is on the cards. 

Paris - Angouleme - Riberac 68km

We set out early to the train station to ensure we had plenty of time. After being slightly misplaced at the rear of the train station we eventually found our way inside. A crazy time finding the bike carriage and then trying to get loaded bikes through a narrow door up two sets of stairs only to be told by a camp supervisor that we couldn’t put the bikes where they needed to go because there were children sitting there. 🫤 A lovely French lady came to the rescue and the bikes were secured in the correct location. Only problem left was finding other seats as the children had ours. 🙄 Enter SNCF, who tried to sort out the problem which resulted in us travelling in first class seats. 😁 Karma! 

I’ve been using Kamoot for the second time and I’m still not convinced it’s the best app to find appropriate routes. We used it to find our way out of Angouleme and it had us going up a 20% pinch with stairs at the end. 😬

After eventually walking into the centre, we used google maps to find our way out. It was beautiful riding through rolling hills of farmland with sunflowers and wheat the most popular crop. We got to see our first Chateau! 

We were meeting Elodie at the campground but unfortunately got a little misplaced with two campgrounds by the same name, so frustrating but lucky we didn’t head up an unnecessary climb. We figured out beforehand that we were being misdirected. Apparently a Google issue.

It’s a lovely campground on the river Dronne and we have the company of my beautiful friend Elodie.