Rocamadour to Sarlat

May 31, 2024

And a Lost Jacket

We were sad to leave Rocamadour without walking through the core but we were intimidated by the descent into the town which would require an ascent afterwords. So, we took off around 10:30 am after a frustrating morning because I seemed to have lost my purple cycling jacket, of which I am quite fond, having purchased it in Norway 9 years ago. More importantly, it works really well on these trips, being the right weight and bright enough so people see me on the bike. I was sure I had left it on the terrace or in the restauarant the previous night, but the hotel proclaimed no knowledge of it and I tore the room apart looking for it. Dave did the same to no avail. We left wondering if I needed to replace it- we hope to be in some warmer weather for the rest of the trip-and with general frustration at our chronic forgetfulness. I consoled myself by the fact it was an old jacket that had already gotten lots of use.

Regular readers will know that losing stuff is a challenge for us at least, but we haven’t done too badly on this trip. Many, many close calls: dropped wallets, windbreakers left in the breakfast room, but always with a quick recovery. We had a close call in Spain when our cycling guide Miqui held up a black glasses case and reported he had found it in the road two hours before. It was David’s case containing his regular glasses; on a rare sunny day he had taken them off at a rest stop to switch to cycling glasses and set them on his back rack, where of course they fell off when he took off. Had we lost those, it would have been a disaster akin to a lost phone or iPad: besides the expense he doesn’t carry a spare - so we had that conversation ("Conversation", hah! More like a stern lecture from Jill to me-well deserved, of course) for next year’s trip, and we thanked Miqui profusely.

Our ride today was an easier 50 k with 430 m in elevation gain, mostly on the front end, and we enjoyed riding on pleasant small roads with a very funky crossing of the valley floor and the L’Ouysse River, just outside the village of Lacave, involving a steep, steep descent on narrow, rough, poorly maintained pavement followed by an equally steep, twisty ascent up the other side. Sometimes Komoot just has a sense of humor. It WAS marked on Komoot as paved, but honestly, it was more like singletrack. I was just praying nobody came at me in the opposite direction. No opportunity for pics here as this section required our full attention. As we ascended we went by the hotel Chateau de la Treyne which looked awesome.

After 25 km we had a few unpleasant kilometers on the D904. It was highway traffic with no shoulder so we were happy to swing off to a lovely cycle way (an old rail line) at Peyrillac-Millac all the way into Sarlat for the last 20 km.

We stopped at a cafe for lunch in Rouillac and split a duck burger as the sun was just peaking through. We needed to kill some time because we couldn’t check in at our B and B until 4 pm. As we were leaving I forgot to unlock my bike and my lock got caught in the back wheel and I couldn’t untangle it. David had already taken off so a very nice British guy who watched me fiddle with it for a few minutes came over and helped me (successfully).

A converted railway station served as our lunch stop.

This particular route had a lot of cycling traffic which was fun to see, including this school group on an outing.

At lunch we had researched places where I might find a new jacket and found an Intersport more or less on our projected route into town. We found the Intersport with relative ease and I went in while David watched the bikes. I dislike shopping and this was purely a hoop jumping exercise. There were a few cycling jackets on sale on a rack; they had two mediums and I picked a red/black number for 34.99 euros. It wasn’t purple but the task was completed.

The ride into Sarlat from there was quite busy given it was Friday afternoon on a commercial shoulderless road. We arrived in the town center and then had to walk our bikes up the long pedestrian oriented Avenue Republic to the north end of town to find our B and B, Le Jardin.

Petanque is a game similar to Bocci ball and is played all over this area.

These three Petanque players stopped mid game and, unbidden by me, spontaneously posed for a photo. I obliged them.

Poppies have been the dominant floral theme on this trip so far.

More on Sarlat and our B and B tomorrow!

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,203 km (747 miles)

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John StreetLoving your blog. You are bringing back happy memories for me. We cycled a similar path on June 10, 2010. Lovely part of France.
https://johndelaroo.wordpress.com/2010-2/
Cheers from John de la Roo
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