A New Adventure in France

On Wednesday it’s still warm and we headed out on the trusty (and now very dusty) bicycles to see a few local villages we’ve read about. The road follows the river through fields of sweetcorn and we stopped to look at the quiet hamlet of Saint Martin-Labouval before heading on to Cénevières. We passed by this village on our last trip out but headed this time through the small village and out the other side, cycling under the cliff on which sits the privately owned and imposing Chateau de Cénevières. We stopped at the weir beneath it which has a ‘fish ladder’ on the extreme right to allow fish migration upriver.

The road continued on the level along the valley until we saw the hilltop village of Calvignac, one of the ‘villages perchés’ in the region. It was built on a rock spur overlooking a loop in the Lot river so occupied a strategic defence position. We took a fairly steep shortcut to avoid a longer uphill climb via the main route. At the top, and just a few hundred yards outside the village, we recovered our breath, panting at the roadside. A ‘professional’, i.e. Lycra clad,cyclist passed us at speed encouraging us on with the exhortation ‘ Allez, allez vous êtes presque au sommet!’ Spurred on by his words we were soon at the top to discover a very simple bar built in the rocks with amazing views from both sides of the building – a wonderful rehydration point. Some other leisurely cyclists also arrived at the top and, observing that they did not appear to be in a total sweating heap, Joe noted that some of the party were on electric bicycles. Joe engaged them in conversation (French) and they were happy to tell him how well the bikes performed and the cost – 2,500 euros. We calculated we could have got 12 of our current models for that much, but perhaps something to consider for the future! No need for electric assistance on the descent to the river.

We crossed the river to Larnagol, another fortified village past its heyday but with a crumbling charm, given the state of many of the houses. Later in the day the rain set in – the first real rain we’ve seen since the start of our trip and the first real test for our awning. Fortunately there were no problems with leaks and we remained comfortable and dry all night. It was also a relief to feel the temperature go down by a good few degrees.

We took advantage of the fresher temperature on Thursday to go out on the motorbike and explore some of the Célé valley. The Célé river is a tributary of the Lot that flows into the Lot a couple of miles up the road at Bouziès. We’re going to be staying at a site in this valley in a few week’s time so we’ll be able to explore it in more depth then, but we spent some time looking around some of the villages nearer to our current location. The valley is quite different to the main Lot river valley and seems to be wilder with less cultivation on the plain. Sheep and goats are grazed on the higher pastures – the pelouses sèches – a type of landscape particular to this region with very dry grass and sparse bushes able to withstand lack of water. Also, there are no signs of any more recent building so everything looks very original and crumbling round the edges. It’s a river that’s popular for kayaking and there are lots of places where access to the river for boating or swimming is easy. We pulled in at various villages along the way including Cabrerets, Saint-Sulpice, Sauliac and Brengues, and got a closer look at some of the troglodyte houses built into the stone cliffs. One village in particular – Marcilhac-sur-Célé – is especially picturesque and where we saw English car registration plates for the first time in this area. Tucked away in the ancient part of the town are the ruins of the Abbaye Saint-Pierre, including Romanesque ruins from the original 9th century church. Amazing to see these tucked away with no fanfare or publicity apart from a handmade sign.

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This whole area is one huge geology lesson (not surprising as we’re in a UNESCO Géoparc) and we saw more evidence of this on a local walk on Friday. We cycled back to the hamlet of Crégols to start the walk – another billed as easy but with the obligatory near-vertical ascent at the start to get you up to where you’ll be walking. Our first point of interest was a former open-cast phosphate mine. These phosphate caves (phosphatières in French) were filled with phosphate-rich clay between 50 and 20 million years ago. Many animal remains and plant debris were dragged in there and fossilized. The caves were discovered and began to be mined in the 1870s in the Quercy region, launching a boom time for phosphate which was used as fertiliser and even sold to Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The operation of the mines lasted for about 30 years but the exploitation of the phosphate caves also revealed their wealth of fossils, hence the modern day interest. Some former phosphate workings are now open to tourists but we had the site to ourselves – as we have done on pretty much every walk we’ve done.

The walk continued through the dry landscape with paths bordered by dry stone walls. The summit of the walk brought us to ‘L’igue de Cregols’. ‘Igue’ isn’t a word we could find a translation for in a standard dictionary and is apparently a local dialect word for a sink hole that has been created by water activity in the limestone plateau. It was certainly an impressive site which we were again able to enjoy in splendid isolation and with a stunning lunchtime view. In true French H&S style there is a barrier along a small part of the edge of the sink hole but it’s every man for himself around the rest of the site. No doubt unwary animals (and humans?) are still adding to the fossil layers…..

We’ll have a change of scene from tomorrow when we move on to a new river. We’re looking forward to seeing what it will be like….