A New Adventure in France

Thursday. The day is set to be a scorcher and we decide to head off on the motorbike to explore further to the west of the Lot. Our first waypoint is Villeneuve sur Lot, about 60 kms to the west of our campsite. Satnav takes us on a scenic route, mostly good but more about the not so good parts on another day. The landscape changes as we go west, away from the limestone ‘causses’ to a more agricultural scene with fields of maize and orchards of fruit trees – mainly plums. We pass a jam factory so guess that’s where a lot of the fruit goes.

Our route takes us through Joe’s namesake village, Saint Sylvestre-sur-Lot, although the most striking feature is actually on the hillside far away to our left – an amazing building with a huge silver (in fact zinc) cupola which we look up later and find is the Basilica of Notre Dame de Peyragude. Looks like it would be worth a separate visit on another day. We arrive at Villeneuve-sur-Lot, once an important trading town and one of the most powerful bastides. It’s attractive enough with a 13th century bridge but we’re not particularly drawn to it so only make a short stop there. Our next destination is Monflanquin about 14 kms north of the river. It’s another bastide (fortified) village and classed as one of France’s ‘most beautiful villages’. According to the official site, there are 159 of these villages and certainly Monflanquin is very attractive, perched on a hilltop as we approached. It was roasting when we arrived at the top of the village but we found a shady spot with a view for lunch and changed out of heavy biking gear into shorts to have more of a look around. The market was being cleared away from the central square with timbered houses – definitely worth a visit.

We had seen in the distance another huge fortified town or castle on a hilltop and had hoped it might be our next destination – Gavaudun. Frustratingly we never found that particular place but we were not disappointed by the ruins of the Chateau de Gavaudun. It’s easy to become blasé when every village you pass is medieval with 13th century churches, bell towers or castle ruins. Our trips are punctuated by frequent photo opportunity stops. Another scenic cross country ride back to base and a very welcome change into cooler clothes.

Friday is market day at Prayssac and we’re surprised to find it is apparently the second largest market after Cahors, despite it being a pretty modest town. Face masks are again the order of the day and a one system is in place for navigating the stalls. There is still evidence of people kissing each other when greeting friends and we’re amused to see they pull down their face masks before doing so! We joined our Dutch neighbour at one of the bars for a drink and a spot of people watching. It’s certainly much more lively this week and many of the people at the market are clearly not French, judging by hair colour and height and the voices around us. Back at camp there are 5 or 6 new arrivals instantly doubling our population – we’ve been spoilt so far. More arrive on Saturday – French and Dutch. Apparently this site is well known by fishermen, so some of the new arrivals also appear to have bought rods with them – we haven’t actually seen any fish landed yet although the river is visibly teeming with them.

On Saturday it’s another fine and sunny day and we cycle to Albas, 7 kms away to start another walk. There’s a lot of up hill and down dale but it’s a very enjoyable walk and this time we’re well prepared with water – good job as we don’t pass another soul. We’re spurred on by the thought of ‘une pression’ at the end of the walk in the bar in the town square that was open when we set off earlier. Unfortunately it’s closed when we get back, with reduced opening hours due to ‘Covid-19 restrictions’. We think it’s more likely that it’s due to lack of tourists and passing trade in general. In fact we’ve noticed on our travels in this area that very few of the villages have any type of cafés or shops, not even a bakery. Those that do have not all yet reopened, but perhaps that will change as the season gets busier. There’s beer in the fridge back at camp so all is not lost…