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Day 8 - To Rocamadour, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées - 214 miles
Day 8
Day 8 profile
The night before I had chatted to a young lad working behind the bar and asked him, in my awful French, what the weather had in store for us. "Rain", he said. This confirmed my interpretation of the Met Office IR satellite image downloaded onto my laptop via my mobile phone. "Bother (or words to that effect)." I thought. Actually, I can't remember what I thought as having crossed the border I was having problems reverting to French from Spanish as I kept saying "gracias" and "por favor" - it was much simpler when I only knew one foreign language not very well. Now I know two not very well and I'm not sure which one is the worst!
It is terribly embarrassing being English in a foreign country. When Susie and I went out to dinner one night on our own in Alicante there was a little Spanish boy on his third birthday singing "Happy Birthday to me" - those words, in English. Now, how many English three year olds do you know who sing "Compleaños a me" just because there are a couple of Spanish people in the restaurant?
We were on the road at 9:55. I was getting used to the time it took Andy to lace up his soft throwover pannier bags on the Fireblade. Hard luggage is definitely de rigueur for touring, although, I have to admit the carrying capacity of Andy's panniers was comparable to the ST's hard panniers. It's just they took so long to fit and make sure the right bag wasn't resting on the exhaust.
North we headed, up the D934. Having performed a navigational faux pas in Zaragossa I was keen not to repeat the mistake again. I was slightly concerned, therefore when our position seemed to be 700ft east of the D934 and this continued for 6 miles going through Gan and right up to the outer perimeter of Pau. I said nothing.
A little bit of country work on the D946 and we stopped for a photo opportunity at 11:04:03 (UTC+2) 355 ft N43.60611 W0.22452.
Andy about to get mown down by a cyclist.
Poplars lining the road in Armagnac country
I then negotiated Riscle and its peculiar one-way system and missed the turn - actually I'm not sure the ST could have made the turn it was so tight. And then to cap it all someone had changed the priorities on the D935 so yet another "U" turn there. "Good job I'm not driving a 30 ton artic." says Andy caustically, very nearly earning him the responsibility for navigating.
We then went through Condom. I looked back in my mirror - no Andy. I sat and I waited. Do I go back, do I wait? So I waited some more. Eventually he appeared - he had stopped to film. I won't tell you what the commentary said - I will leave it to your imagination!
A bit further on I was again missing Andy in my mirrors. "He's had an off." I was thinking. Back I went and found him coming towards me. He had stopped for a "comfort break". I stopped and directed him to the view to Laplume.
Laplume
Up the D930 to Agen and we were looking for fuel at 13:22. We found a credit card payment pump at N44.20598 E0.63545. I tried all my cards, Andy tried all his. Rejected. In spite of asking the credit card companies if they would work in French petrol stations and having been assured they would, they didn't. Bother. We continued in light drizzle for a while and found yet another closed petrol station. We also found some kids. I asked them where we could get fuel. They said back the way we had come over the bridge and turn left. The rain then started to hammer down, bouncing nearly a foot off the road it was so hard. Back we went. To the same petrol station where our cards had failed before!
Why is it that it is always a Sunday, ******** down with rain, low on fuel, that I am always trying to get petrol in France!!! (Actually I wasn't low on fuel but we wouldn't have made our destination without this top-up)
Anyway, this time there was a Frenchman there filling his car. We hijacked him, explained our predicament, got him to pay with his credit card and gave him the cash.
Full tanks, we continued on our way at 13:57. Only a half hour wasted.
Near Blaymont we spotted a restaurant and stopped. Good decision. As we entered the restaurant 14:20:21 (UTC+2) 702 ft N44.30650 E0.85769 the heavens opened again.
Very good meal, extremely filling and hot and the waitress was very friendly and very large. I'm sure she took a shine to Andy. When we came to leave Andy almost ran to his bike. I'm not sure if it was with joy or he was trying to make a fast getaway!
As we were mounting (the bikes) a French cyclist appeared.
"Je suis perdu. Où est Puymirol?" he said. Since this is similar to the name of a well known dental polishing paste it had registered on my subconscious as we had passed the sign a few miles back. I was able to direct him. How about that, an Englishman abroad directing a lost local - I do hope he found the place!
At 15:48:28 (UTC+2) 661 ft N44.39990 E0.99583 we were at Tournon d'Agenais where I showed Andy the moon-phase clock.
Tournon d'Agenais
We spent ten minutes here before travelling north again towards Fumel. We then took the D673 to Gourdon. In the dry this would have been a wonderful road. I remembered I had been along this road once before about 8 years ago, in the car, when we were staying in a gîte near Tournon.
From Gourdon to Payrac and then the D673 to Rocamadour which is quite a fun road - better in the dry.
The hotel Les Vielles Tours, one of the Châteauxhotels was up a small road not shown on the GPS map just before Rocamdour. The turning is at 781 ft N44.80032 E1.60379 and the hotel at 839 ft N44.80336 E1.59523. We got there at 17:41.
The hotel is a 13th century falconry and the food and rooms were very good. It was the most expensive place we stayed at but that is perhaps not surprising since it is in the heart of the "tourist zone" of the Dordogne.
Hotel Les Vielles Tours
Stats
Moving time 5:22
214 miles
Moving Av 39.8 mph
Overall Av 31.8 mph
Total Time 6:44
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