After the sun comes the rain!

A rainy day was forecast for our trip to Bort les Orgues, the site of a huge dam on the Dordogne and some cliffs that look like organ pipes. We packed all the contents of our panniers in bin liners, put on our lightweight rain jackets for the first time and headed up the long hill out of Meymac. It didn't take long for the rain to start, but in some ways it made the cycling easier when compared with the hot days. We soon warmed up and were in Bort les Orgues by midday.




Our cycling shorts had dried by this time but our socks and shoes are still wet as I write this blog at 8 o'clock in the evening. Earlier this afternoon we walked around the old part of town and were lucky to hear the organist practicing when we entered the church. Most of the churches in these parts have amazing art and other relics that are well worth seeing. This one had modern stained glass windows, some in an abstract style and others more pictorial.


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Location:Meymac to Bort les Orgues

Pretty quiet on Mondays

We travelled out of the Dordogne today and are now in the Correze. Unfortunately it is Monday which means that most shops are closed and the Museum of Contemporary Art is too! But not all art is in museums and galleries.


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Location:Meymac

Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches

All over France you find buildings that seem incredible when you take into account the technology that was available when they were constructed. This applies particularly to religious buildings such as cathedrals. In this region the style is Romanesque and the photo is of the 12C church in Terrasson.





View from the old bridge at Terrasson in the evening.


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Location:Terrasson

Troglodyte dwellings by the Vezere

People lived in caves around the river Vizere from around 14,000 years ago until the 1800's. We visited one of the cave villages at La Madeleine on our way to St Leon sur Vezere and it was amazing how the early humans had carved away the stone to channel the water and for supporting wooden constructions. They also made large holes in the rock face for look-outs so they could see their enemies approaching. In more recent times they built a chapel and we saw a bat hanging from the roof above the altar.




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Location:La Madeleine

Roses

The flowers in France are magnificent in May and huge climbing roses are everywhere. Cherries are ripe on the trees and are common in ordinary gardens. I don't know how they pick them though as they are not pruned like those in the orchards. A Cherry Picker perhaps?


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Location:Tayrac (next to Les Eyzies)

Day 2 - heading for Les Eyzies

After a really heartwarming evening at Ferme de la Croix, where we ate and talked for two to three hours with our host and four other guests we set out on the road towards Les Eyzies, the centre of prehistory in France. This is a typical village in the region and the day was noticeably cooler with a light shower along the way.


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Location:Molieres

Hot on the hills

Just down the road from where this photo was taken we found a ruined castle where an old man was removing weeds from one of the crumbling walls. It wasn't even on the map, but there are so many around here only the famous ones get a mention. We found mint and other herbs growing in the keep. An old woman told me that I should be wearing a hat!



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Location:Montferrand du Perigord

Setting up our bikes

Here we are at Le Buisson station after having collected our bikes from Robert. They are both Cannondale hybrids and we are just fitting the cycle computer. We purchased a couple of old panniers and they were just big enough to hold our extra gear.

It was a beautiful day, but probably too hot for our first foray into the hills, particularly as we set out at midday. We headed for the abbey at Cadouin and then planned to go via St Avit Rivière to our farmhouse stay at Ferme. La Croix.



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Location:Le Buisson de Cadouin

Trial Pack

We carried out a trial pack this morning and this is what we are taking to France. Our original intention was to take only two packs but the helmets made them too big for carry-on baggage, so we are taking one checked-in bag as well. It was also an opportunity to add some items that would not be allowed on the plane, such as a penknife and scissors. The packs weigh around 5kg each.

Most of the items are clothes for cycling, including 'Icebreaker' lightweight, quick-drying, short and long sleeved shirts that we can use in a layered way to cope with the variations in weather. We are also taking the following electronic items:

• Panasonic Lumix digital camera, with charger and transfer leads
• Garmin Dakota GPS with preloaded TOPO map of France
• Fast (15m) battery charger for Garmin
• Apple iPod with FaceTime (wi-fi video chat)
• Apple iPad preloaded with books, maps, accommodation, apps etc
• Cateye micro wireless cycle computer

When cycling we will offload some of the heavier, non-valuable items into one of the panniers and use the other for food and drink. This will enable us to leave them on the bikes, when we are walking around villages and tourist sites, with only light back-packs to carry.