Day 7: L’Isle Jourdain to Rochechouart

September 7, 2022

After a restful night, we were ready to tackle the day ahead and were quite content that it was a shorter day. Skies are blue and the temperature is perfect for another day in the saddle.

Keith’s goal when he retired was to have a hotel. After searching for a year and a half, they bought this property and did the renovations necessary for him to provide the accommodations he feels travelers should experience. The property consists of bedrooms in the main house plus some gîtes. They can accommodate up to 16 people. If you are ever in this area, it is a must-stay place.

On the viaduct looking back at the chambre d’hôtes

Goodbye L’Isle Jourdain - hope to visit you next time!

Since we didn’t visit the village, we must go back someday!

This coming weekend the track will be hosting a vintage car rally. Sure wish we could see that! Anyway, we rode in and nosed around. It’s a great track with lots of corners.

Time to pull Chuck away and pedal onwards.

The road was quiet, but we did have to pull off twice to allow tractors pulling trailers to pass by. It appears they were harvesting the corn fields.

Beautiful cow with a brindle colored and dotted hide

I made Chuck stop so I could take these photos. These girls were beautiful!

As we stood on the bridge crossing La Vienne, we decided to not climb the hill to see the chateau ruins today.

Peaceful river photo taken from the middle of the bridge.

Scarecrow at work over the small vineyard

Apparently the birds require a second scarecrow

When we rode into the small village of Exideuil, we found this covered plaza and just had to stop. It was a perfect spot to eat our picnic lunch. The 4 British gentlemen we’ve been seeing each day rode past once again. We may lose contact now since they’re staying elsewhere.

Lunchtime with a converted phone booth (now a library)

This village wins for most beautiful flower displays.

Romanesque style churches don’t have windows so they’re very dark inside.

Our next stop is to view a living archeological site: Cassinomagus, a Gallo- Roman thermal bath complex.

The pattern seen is where tiles were once placed on the swimming pool floor. Along all four sides of this pool were tunnels that heat came through from the wood stoked ovens.

Floors consisted of a layer that resembles today’s concrete topped by tile. Under the floors were a complicated duct system for the heat transfer from the ovens.

There were 6 ovens in this room that provided the heat to the baths. This is an opening to one of the ovens. Below shows another oven.

Riding along with a group of locals into Rochechouart

After checking into our little hotel (the only hotel in town), we walked around town.

It was 5:30pm and the caretaker was locking up.

Château de Rochechouart is a thirteenth-century French castle, located at the top of the confluence of the Grêne and Vayres rivers in the commune of Rochechouart within the department of Haute-Vienne.

The chateau houses an art museum, but we’re too late to visit it. However, this piece was in the courtyard. We couldn’t figure it out. It’s a person wrapped around the tree trunk, but it is also attached to the object to the left. Any ideas?

When we checked into our hotel, they asked if we wanted dinner reservations. We said sure. It was a wise decision since there weren’t any other places around town that were open.

Funny tidbit: While waiting for dinner and nursing a pression (draught beer), a couple we met at breakfast on Day 3 joined us. We compared notes on our different routes to Nice. Then we learned that Sue had been to Foix cycling. And to top it off she stayed at Cycle Pyrenees that was owned by our friends, Ian & Bea. Small world!

We weren’t expecting much for dinner, but we were surprised by the great meal offered by this little hotel. My entree was grilled watermelon and tuna with salad.

Chuck’s entree was polenta with magret fumé. Our main plat was beef tournedos- delicious! We ate it before taking a picture. Amazing dinner!

Stats: 62.6 kilometers 725 meters elevation

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 850 km (528 miles)

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rod dayGlad to hear from you again. We were starting to get woried! x
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