Cenac to Rocamadour

May 9, 2019

A wet start but a lovely ride

Our chambre d'hôte, La Touille, was nice. Clean and spacious, with a very friendly host who had not a word of English. And super-fast wifi which we haven’t had since Bergerac!

We obeyed the “interdit de laver du linge” sign because we used all the possible places to hang our wet stuff. The air inside got damp as soon as we entered.

Breakfast was brought on a tray to our room and included the usual croissants and baguette, plus some brioche buns and madeleines (made by our hostess!). We ate everything except the baguette, which we packaged up for lunch.

Both our hostess and Scott Anderson said the views from Domme were not to be missed so we started the day with a warming climb. No warmup, mind you, since La Touille is less than 100 m from where the road tilts up.

We are thinking now it must be us. The light drizzle we started in intensified as we went up to a full-on downpour at the top. Happily the Office de Tourisme has a covered outdoor area from whence we looked at the market and waited for the rain to ease.

It finally did, we looked at the view briefly so as not to get cold, and headed down by a different, narrower and steeper route. We backtracked our ride from yesterday to Carsac and it is really a lovely road. Well worth doing more than once!

The little restaurant where we hid from the elements yesterday

We picked up the Voie Verte in Carsac and followed it across the Dordogne. On the left bank once again, we found our way onto D50, another quiet and scenic road. There's a Voie Verte that runs this way too, but the hard surface and light traffic on the departmental road trumped the gravel path. This became D43 when we crossed into the Lot department. And along the way the rain had stopped!

Garmin wanted me to go this way. I said NO.

We wanted to go into Souillac because we'd found a bike shop there online and were pleased to discover that the quiet road crossed the river by a narrow one-lane bridge. Easy! And on into Souillac to discover that everything was closed on a Thursday afternoon, including the bike shop. We'd missed it by just a few minutes.

We ate our picnic lunch (the baguette with the cheese and strawberries from yesterday) sitting on a dry bench under a tree in the old part of the city. Back to D43 which continues on the right bank of the Dordogne. It descends to Lacave but we turned off just before to take the green-highlighted and convoluted road to Calès. Our host in Sarlat, a keen motorcyclist, had advised us not to miss the stretch of D673 from Calès to Rocamadour and he was so right! Maybe the route from Lonely Planet (Cycling in France) is also good, but I don't think it would be better!

Just beside me as I took this photo was a sign that said "Rocamadour 12" pointing ahead and "Calès 6" pointing back the way we had come. Funny, the sign in Calès had said "Rocamadour 13" pointing down the road we took... [At home, I checked with Google Street View and my memory is correct.]

Looking back on the road between Calès and Rocamadour

We passed the Rocamadour sign, the usual rectangular one with the town name inside the red box, but apparently we had arrived in L'Hospitalet, essentially above the mediæval city of Rocamadour. Garmin found our hotel, but we were a bit hesitant of the descent (because we don't always trust Garmin). Garmin was correct, though, and Hôtel Terminus des Pelerins is in the mediæval city at the bottom of the pilgrims' staircase. I was worried at first, because the sign on the door said to enter through the restaurant and the restaurant was very closed! So I phoned and it turns out that the restaurant was closed today--apparently it's low season. We wheeled our bikes into the restaurant and leaned them against a couple of tables.

Finally, a photo of geese as we entered Rocamadour! We haven't seen a lot of geese (or ducks), considering the amount of foie gras and confit de canard we've seen on menus and in shops.

Rocamadour, as seen from the viewpoint as you leave L'Hospitalet.

Another view of Rocamadour crowned by its Château (which is at the level of L'Hospitalet).

The sign (off camera) says our hotel is that way, through the gate.

Our room is satisfactory, though it doesn't have the individuality of the chambres d'hôte we've been staying in. I think Al is relieved for the impersonality of a hotel, though.

We settled in (showers, laundry, etc.) and then went out to explore. When it came time to find a restaurant for dinner, we noticed that the street, busy with pedestrians when we arrived, was now almost deserted, and our hotel's restaurant was not the only one closed tonight.

We ate at a competitor hotel's restaurant. The entrée and plat were adequate, while the dessert (pannacotta) was excellent. Suddenly tired, off to bed.

The Escalier des Pelerins leads up to the church from the mediæval city below.

It's a very tall church; this is only a small part of it

This chapel contains banners of the most famous pilgrims, various kings of France

Exterior of the main church where regular masses are held

Inside, the famous wooden statue of the black Madonna

Image not found :( — A beautiful modern organ

Looking down at Rocamadour with L'Hospitalet in the background. The line through the green is the road between the two. It passes through a short tunnel where it makes the hairpin bend.

Above the church complex, the way of the stations of the cross leads to the Château. I was wondering what sin you had to commit to be assigned the penance or fixing the church roof! At the top, you could pay to go through a turnstile to see the view from the Château but it didn't seem that you could enter the building, so we saved our Euros.

The street is deserted in the evening and it wasn't exactly late!

Heart

Comment

Link

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 430 km (267 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	6
Comment on this entry	Comment	0