September 13, 2022
Day 13: Entraygues sur Thuyère to St. Gêniez d’Olt et d’Aubrac
We were excited at the onset of today’s ride - it’s the shortest day of the whole trip. Just 53 kilometers. We’ve been watching the weather and it appears that the thunderstorms will arrive around 3 pm, so we should be in early enough.
When we stopped for this photo, we were passed by several lorries (semis) and a few cars. We were on a main department road with speeds of 90 kph. We discussed whether we wanted to be on a busy road … we looked at maps … we talked some more … we decided to go back to that bridge posted above and follow the V86 bike route to the next village instead. Off we went.
Well, I don’t have any photos to prove this, but we crossed that bridge and turned left along the river. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed … after 4 km we stopped for a breather. I hadn’t looked at the Garmin, but Chuck said when he would glance the gradient was above 10%. We hummed and hawed and pondered. The weather wasn’t great looking … how much further to the top … what should we do?! It was muggy and we were drenched (no rain yet). We ultimately decided to turn around and go back to the published route. Forty five minutes later, we had returned to the town sign and pedaled along the published route. Traffic was minimal. Headwind was horrific, but not as bad as the climb we had started.
Side note: Chuck checked the route afterwards and we still had a really long way to go to get to the top of that climb - we were maybe halfway up. Sure glad we turned around.
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It’s a love story that created this little chapel - sort of a Romeo & Juliette story. Young couple fall in love. Father has promised daughter to an old baron, who wasn’t a very nice guy. The lovers had planned a secret midnight meeting. The mean man found out and had a portion of the bridge removed. Young man crossed the bridge in the dark, fell, and drowned. The daughter was devastated and had his tomb placed where they had found his body alongside the river Lot. Then the chapel was built at the site . Daughter died shortly after from a broken heart. It is said that the two lovers linger at the chapel now.
Today the chapel is filled with artwork done by a local artist depicting the love story and some religious figures. Sadly it was locked and we couldn’t see his work.
Next stop: Estaing, one of the ‘plus beaux villages’ in France. Its stunning!
Chuck sang here while tourists and randonneurs from the Chemin de Compestello were in attendance. One gentleman video’ed him and a lady thanked him.
Temperature is rising and we most move on. Again we hoping to beat the anticipated thunderstorms.
The second village we stopped in was Saint Côme d’Olt and equally beautiful. The restaurants, picnic tables, and benches were full of randonneurs.
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And then we rode into this third village and it was the prettiest of them all. Sainte Eulalie d’Olt.
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We didn’t make time to visit any of the artist galleries, but this is on our list of places to come back and spend some time. You should too!
We finally reached St. Gêniez d’Olt and checked in to the Hotel de Lion d’Or. The proprietor said ‘weren’t you going to arrive around 2 pm?’ I replied (well I tried to in French but the brain was foggy) ‘he made me do an extra climb’. We all laughed.
After showers and laundry we wandered around for a bit.
This young boy and girl rescued a marmot and brought it up as a pet. The marmot ran away one day and the boy and girl went searching for it. While they were gone a huge storm hit the town and destroyed it entirely leaving no survivors. The marmot had saved the boy and girl and is now the village mascot.
Once again we had dinner at the hotel. And it was amazing!
Somehow we missed the photo of Chuck’s veal dish.
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Oh and that picture up above 'What's this?' it's a picture of a concrete pillar on a bridge with the Lot in the background and a sign. Isn't it?
Keep enjoying adding in those little extra 200m climbs, we love reading about them as we sip wine in front of the TV and you can kid yourselves it's all part of the training plan for Ventoux :-)
1 year ago
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Well, so much for the shortest (only 53k) day!!
Stats: 64 kilometers 844 meters elevation
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,251 km (777 miles)
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