October 23, 2010
Around Cahors: day off bikes
WEATHER: CLOUDY IN THE MORNING, THEN SUNNY
Breakfast was served downstairs in the bar accompanied by the ginger hotel cat. Afterwards we walked to the east side of town, through the market in the market square, then looked for a tower that we had seen on the map. We climbed up a steep hill through a 'natural' garden to the base of the tower. On the way back to the hotel we saw a small remnant of a Roman bath just on the street in a residential neighbourhood. The town was not that interesting--the main attraction of Cahors seemed to us to be the Pont Valentre.
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By lunchtime the sun had come out and we found a little bistro, Restaurant Mephisto, with outside seating and a very jovial, entertaining proprietor (he whisked example plates from other diners' tables to show us how good they were). He proceeded to serve us a good 12 euro lunch (including wine and coffee). The menu was vegetable soup, then an excellent vol-au-vent with mushrooms for entrees. Marchons de canards with green beans for the plat, and crème caramel for Al and fresh cheese with honey for Eva. We struck up a conversation with a couple of Brits at the next table. When we told them we were cycling, he said he had written a cycling guidebook for the area (published by Cicerone). They lived in Prayssac, where we had thought we might stop for lunch the day before, and they knew the restaurant near the bridge where we had had the odd lunch--they said it was awful.
After lunch we went back to the Pont Valentre in the sunshine, took more photos and walked along the riverside path. We were still full from lunch, so ate a light dinner at a little cafe that specialized in pizzas and salads. We were somewhat concerned about the weather forecast for the next day, since rain was predicted, and we had had no experience with cycling in the rain so far.
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