Defying the Sat Nav

Today was sheer biking heaven. Partly because I had set a route out in my head (D911 from Millau to Cahors) so when the Sat Nav told me to turn off the D911, I very naughtily, refused to do what I was told.

We started off leaving the Cevenol Hotel and heading towards the road that went under the viaduct. The viaduct is huge and I mean very huge - ginormous in fact....

It was time to say goodbye to the viaduct  for the second time in 2 years and off we headed for the D911.

This road was fantastic for bikers. Bend after bend after bend, meandering through miles of deciduous forests where pockets of wild lavender bushes provided a sweet aroma. Every now and again we would be travelling through narrow valleys and at other times huge wide valleys. We travelled along the road as it hugged the sides if the valleys providing the most amazing vistas and revealing awe-inspiring villages.

Occasionally there would be rocky outcrops where in one village, residents had carved out caves to be used for storage and as garages.

At lunchtime we decided to stop at the next road side cafe, however, the magic of today's ride offered us so much more. We turned a corner and came across the medieval town of Villefranche-de-Rouergue and the cafe? The cafe was set in a large open expanse on the banks of the river, next to the old medieval bridge.

The trees spared us from the 32 C heat. It was a pretty damn good roadside cafe!!

For the last stretch of the journey (after a brief stop at a McDonalds - I know, they get everywhere, but they have Daim Bar McFlurrys in France), we followed the Dordogne and a roadside canal to Bergerac. 

We were tired, hot and sweaty, but the icing on the cake today - the hotel had a pool!

From deep down to high up

Today started with a delightful, freshly made, buttery croissant with mirabelle jam, washed down with a aromatic French coffee.

We then said a sad farewell to the chilled village of Miers and the amazing Le Petit Dragon Rouge and headed for Le Gouffre de Padirac - a mere 4.5 km away.

We decided to go earlyish in order to miss the queues, however at 9.30am the queues were still 2 hours long!!

Eventually the 2 hours had passed, we'd got our tickets and it was time to descend.

No photos were allowed, so here's what was able to be taken.....

As no photos were allowed, please follow this link for more images...http://www.gouffre-de-padirac.com/mobile.php?redir=fr/padirac/medias

We set off (finally) for Millau (prenounced Mee- yo) at about 2pm ish. Much later than anticipated. 

The temp today hit 40 C at times, according to the Pharmacy illuminated lights that were plentiful in every village we passed through.

The roads were a bikers dream - constant bends and the occasional hairpin thrown in for good measure. Absolutely stunning! and enjoyable - flowing from one corner to the other - leaning to the left followed by a lean to the right and so on. 

The flow of the ride only slowed by the frequent laying if fresh gravel and being behind a lorry without an opportunity to pass.

The road signs soon signalled that we were near ti Millau and the amazing viaduct. We joined the A75 at junction 44 and followed the road in a southerly direction towards Montpellier. We paid our only planned toll (at the bridge) and made our scheduled stop at the visitor centre for a walk up to the viewing gallery.

We rejoined the motorway to junction 47 and dropped down the most amazing windy road boasting majestic vistas at most corners to the town of Millau and the Cevenol Hotel (where we stayed during last year's tour). The food as just as amazing, bit alas, there are no rugby players staying this year.

Off Road Riding!

As we sat eating breakfast, the temperature rose to 28 C. We left it late leaving the biker hotel and our mission was to find a petrol station that was open before we ran out of fuel. We were both on red as Sunday in France = everything shuts down!

According to Rob and Tom it is the same on Monday too and true enough, the fuel station not 50 yards away from the hotel, was shut! After a nervous 15 mins, we thankfully came across a Citroen garage that was open for business AND had fuel.

The scenery was really changing now - more hilly and the forests were more frequent. It was beautiful. We'd had lunch in the new Oradour-sur-Glane so decided to ride as much of the 190km as we could before the need for fuel or water. The Sat Nav on the other had thought that this would be a good time to take us down roads through the middle of nowhere - you know the ones I mean - with grass and gravel n the middle of the road. Well it was a challenge, but not like the one we were about to face......

There had been a storm ahead of us - we could see clouds forming, but were hoping to miss it. At first the roads appeared wet and the air smelt of fresh rain and the temperature appeared slightly cooler. Then we started to dodge twigs and leaves strewn across both carriageways of the road and then the twigs and leaves became branches blocking our carriage way. We turned the next corner and there was a tree across the road - what sort of storm was this? The power line that ran parallel to the road had also come down! The police were already at the scene and we dutifully observed their make-shift diversion - into a wet, muddy field steep camber down and then steep up the other side back onto the road whilst riding in a semi- circular direction to the right. The previous vehicles had cut deep grooves into the field and there was evidence that some of the previous vehicles had slipped and slided as they negotiated the diversion.

It was one of those moments where you try and plan your next move but in the end go with the flow. Down off the road down the steep bank - negotiate the least sloppy looking groove whilst on the flat - planned for the tiny grassy strip between wet, muddy tyre tracks - here goes, not to much acceleration in case I lose control of my back tyre and no braking - up the slope and...........

Made it! A quick glance in my mirror and Anne had made it too. We questioned Nia about the incident after and she said she was, "a bit anxious".

We stopped for fuel. Reflected over the events that had just happened and then continued on our way to Miers via Rocamadour a town high up on the cliffs above the Dordogne. Absolutely stunning.

And now were sitting on the raised front courtyard to Le Petit Dragon Rouge in Miers drinking a lovely redefine from the Glane area of France. Meirs is such a small village - all roads leading to it are single lane. It is magical.

Oradour

The sun was shining making the stones in the road and the rails on the train track glisten. The young children laughed as they jumped from stone to stone in what would have been someone's back garden once.

The birds chirped loudly and flew freely in the endless blue sky and young families sat on the steps of what 69 years ago was a thriving town with 3 cafes, 2 hotels, it's own telephone exchange and it's own station.

But there was nothing normal about Oradour-sur-Glane. You can't imagine what happened here - the mindless slaughter of 642 defenceless men, women and children. You walk past the schools, 3 of them in ruins. The church where the women and children were hoarded in, doors locked and the building torched.

Oradour-sur-Glane appears today as it was left when the SS pulled out with the addition of a memorial to the victims in the old town cemetery where 2 glass topped coffins are full of charred bones so that no one forgets.

There is a museum now, but that is low key and built underground - the structure appearing from the top giving the appearance of a monument - doesn't shout, hey look at me - doesn't glamorise the event. The poignant moments - the remains of a child's pram in the church and the signs asking for silence.

Marilyn in the loo!

Just in case you were curious........

Castles and Châteaux

The temp today was 35 C and with the heat of the engine added, one could say that it was bloody hot. Thank goodness for the Camelbacks!

We decided to get a large chunk of the journey out the way before the high temps hit home, so the first stop was after 100km and the ride - well, thanks to the Roman's it was on long straight roads. These roads hardly had a bend and you could see for miles ahead. 

Here's a tip, if you're planning a trip to France - France is closed on Sunday and Monday. We couldn't get lunch today because everything was shut! And fuel? Well we're on the red light as the down side of the lovely D roads we road today, was that the fuel stations were shut too!!!

The scenery changed gradually from the endless fields to fields of sunflowers and vineyards. Quite stunning, really. We also seemed to ride into château-land - they were everywhere and majestic in appearance. Even the small ones, which weren't really that small.

We turned one corner, in the middle of nowhere whilst on single-track D roads and we came across this......

We just had to stop for a photo opportunity.

There were some amazing smells today too - a really strong scented flower that smelt like lavender but we couldn't see any fields of the flower. 

Our digs this evening are in a biker-hotel near Bussière-Poitevine called Route 66.

Last night they had 60 bikers staying and had a live band, but tonight it is just us and a few locals attending for dinner (one from London and one from Perth, Australia). Plus the woof and a resident chicken...

What a great little joint - our room has pictures of Marilyn Munro everywhere (even in the toilet). The food was great even down to getting food in for Anne and Nia's pescatarian diet.

So tomorrow, we're off to Oradour-sur-Glane. I'm sure this will be a sobering experience. And then off to a little bit of home, Le Petit Dragon Rouge in Meirs.

Road Closed

Today started off well - we got up early, packed the bikes and set off for Folkestone. Got through customs without a hitch and then had time to enjoy (???) a Burger King breakfast in the terminal building. We were letter 'N' and when called, dutifully set off for the train. 

On the other side, there were a couple of hitches. Firstly, my bike wouldn't start so I had to jump start it, (with Nia on the back and in the middle of the train carriage). Then the sat nav took us straight back to the check-in for trains back to the UK!!!!!! Following a very skilful bit of manoeuvring we got out of that pickle only for the sat nav to die on us!

So an eventful couple of miles, but thankfully all seemed to sort themselves out, (apart from the Sat Nav being a liitle temperamental at times). 

The autoroutes get you from A to B in the shortest time - great for some but on a biking holiday you want to experience the place you're visiting and not just blast past everything to get to your destination.

France has beautiful countryside (Britain does too) and the most wonderful little villages each with their own unique character. The numerous large crucifixes holding a carved sculpture of Jesus frequenting many road junctions, houses and cemeteries, near to Calais. The fields of corn and stunning forests. We rode through single width lanes, dodging the spray of water as the Farmers' watered their fields. The wind farms were plentiful and the roads were sparse of cars.

We crossed over bridges which when looking to the left or right, revealed a beautiful vista of a waterway.

We met some interesting folk today - the guy from Belgium, on a campervan holiday with his 2 young son who loved the opportunity to sit on the bike. Their grins were from ear to ear. The bloke in the cafe, where we stopped for lunch who insisted on telling me about the time he had a car crash in York ( I'm French) and the lady in the Boulangerie who asked a hundred and one questions about where we were off to.

We stopped for lunch by the Notre Dam. Not the one in Paris, but in this little town just to the north of Rouen.

Did I just mention Rouen?

We were meant to bypass the centre of Rouen, but we hit our first 'road closed'. The closure created a rather large traffic jam, however we filtered that without any problems, only to have to ride through the centre of Rouen, literally in the road past the entrance to the most majestical cathedral and along the banks of the River Seine.

The second road closure, this time with no forewarning was in a small town of Dreux where we dutifully started to follow the 'Deviation' signs which disappeared before you could blink! 

Nia had a bad case of arseysoreitis today and we decided that drastic action was required. Good job I was in the cubs and Anne the Brownies - well it was Nia who came up with a solution. I popped into an Intermarche and bought a cushion ( the type for a garden chair) and tied in to the pillion seat. Success - comfort for tho bot!

We really did ride through some wonderful scenery on great roads today. There were roads that were log and straight lined on both verges with neat lines of trees and roads that swept to the left and right where you could gracefully lean the bike into. There were canals and rivers and rows of golden fields - a great day!

We finally got to the budget hotel (should be mega-budget hotel) in Chartres with the incredibly rude receptionist. No key card or key for this hotel - a code! No restaurant, but bizarrely, next door was a most wonderful fish restaurant! Lovely especially when washed down with a nice cold Muscadet.

So that was our day - tomorrow we'll be riding down towards Limoges and we'll be staying at a Biker hotel!! Wish us luck!