June 4, 2008
To Autoire
I dont recall if I mentioned earlier that this was a tour in two roughly equal parts. The first half of course followed the Atlantic coast north to the Loire, followed it upriver to Blois, and then turned south to end at Poitiers.
From Poitiers we caught the train south to Brive-en-Gaillarde and started the second half of the tour - a shorter, significantly hillier arc through the Lot, Averyron and Dordogne valleys.
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I don’t remember any interesting anecdotes about the train trip, so presumably it went well or at least unmemorably. I don’t remember much about the ride south on that first day either other than passing through Carennac, a small town in a lovely riverside setting on the upper Dordogne. I remembered Carennac fondly from our first tour through the Dordogne eight years earlier, and for years we had a photograph of the town on the wall of our Portland condo. On that tour we stayed two nights in Carennac and took a day ride to nearby Roamadour; but today we just passed through to refresh our memories and stop for lunch.
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And, I don’t recall much about the ride to Autoire or about Autoire itself, in spite of its classification as one of the most beautiful villages in France and the fact that we spent the night there.
Rachael and I both certainly remember an experience during our stay there though - it’s one of our favorite touring memories. At the time of this tour, Rachael was the team leader for our data warehouse software development team, and as usual some sort of consequential project was underway. An urgent issue had come up with it, and Rachael received an email requesting that she call the office to help them talk it through.
Unfortunately Autoire is a bit of a backwater village, buried in the hills; and 13 years ago cell phone coverage was less ubiquitous and reliable than it is now. There was no service at all in the hotel, so we walked up to the top of a nearby hill hoping for reception there. It was found, barely, in a small patch right of the crown of the hill. In the late-day light, Rachael called the office and talked through the issue with one of her teammates. She ended the call though when we could hear church bells ringing in the hour in the village below. Time for dinner she announced, and ended the call; and we headed downhill in the fading light to more important matters.
Ride stats: 43 miles, 2,300’; for the tour: 780 miles, 25,000’
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 707 miles (1,138 km)
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