Gramat to Vayrac

October 15, 2022

It gets light later here; breakfast at 8am is eaten in the gloom of morning twilight, but by the time we are packed and out the door at 9am the sun is bright and already warming up. We had planned to pick up some fresh food at the Saturday market, but instead of tables laden with cheeses and vegetables, it turned out to be a used car sales event with a side show of antique autos. We were reminded of something Scott Anderson said: one of the pleasures of travel is being surprised every day.

Gramat is a small town so we were quickly on back roads, winding our way through hilly farmland. Our route was mostly what Rides with GPS had suggested between the villages, with a few detours to avoid unpaved. This area is still "les causses du Lot" which refers to the layers of limestone bedrock just below the surface. It makes for good quarry rocks and stunning steep valley scenery, but the farming is marginal and especially un-suited to modern methods that prefer large, flat fields with deep soils.

Walnuts are one crop that does grow well and after passing many groves we stopped into a farmyard advertising nuts for sale. A jovial woman answered the bell and was willing to answer our questions and give us a tour of their nut sorting, drying and oil pressing facilities, all included in a 6euro bag of nuts. In Quebec we call walnuts "noix de Grenoble" but she said the nuts from there were vastly inferior to the "noix de Quercy" that grow in this part of France. Later we saw the machines shaking the trees and sweeping up the nuts as she had described. Whenever a small scale producer explains what goes into growing and preparing some food for market, I am amazed how they can make a living.

The main attraction of today's route was three villages that have qualified to be among "les plus beaux villages" de France. While such designations are suspect, those we saw were definitely beautiful. Autoire, Loubressac and Carennac all had an assortment of stone and timber frame buildings in a lovely setting, well preserved and maintained with gardens and churches. What surprised us was how very quiet they were. Why aren't the most beautiful villages in France busy with tourists or weekend visitors on a sunny Saturday in October? While we appreciate the quiet roads for cycling, it would be nice to see some people in these places. Absolutely nothing was open in Autoire and, apart from four hikers, we saw no other living creatures; a handful of fellow travellers were spotted in Loubressac, where we ate lunch at the only place open (a frightfully expensive, gourmet restaurant); finally in Carannac the church and the tourist office were open, there was an art exhibit in the old monastery, and a couple of cafes with people at the outdoor tables.

I worry about getting blasé about it all: "Oh, I think we just went past another 15th C church; we should stop at the next one." So we remind ourselves how fortunate we are to be here, in rural France, on our bicycles, experiencing amazing natural and human-built places with hundreds or thousands of years of history, off-season with almost no traffic and no line ups, yet still with comfortable accommodations, delicious food and 25°C, sunny weather.

We will be based in Vayrac for a few days where we can experience a bit of ordinary, French, rural life. It's a town with no official superlatives but with a 15th C church, a bakery with fabulous baguettes, a small grocery store, and an easy day's ride to a number of famous attractions without our panniers.