On Friday, while based in beautiful Sarlat-la-Canéda in south-west France, we hired bikes and did a 22km ride alongside the Dordogne River. This was the longest ride any of us had ever done (only by an inch for me, but for the kids it was more than double what we usually do with them!).
The early part of the ride involved some serious effort — when the track was rather more of a mountain bike trail than the paved paths we'd been imagining — but was absolutely worth it. The scenery was spectacularly stunning to a degree that is impossible to put into words, so here are LOTS of photos...
The bike rental place in Castelnaud-la-Chapelle.Off we go!Crossing a little river.A bit of extra riding due to a missed turn.Castelnaud-la-Chapelle Castle.Pushing our bikes up a rocky track that led around a mountain.Holly!That's the Dordogne way down there.Yay! We're through the rocky bit.
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Downhill, wheee!
Pavement again. That's a good sign.A gorgeous little village we passed through.Roses!Rooftops. 😍Back down the mountain again, passing some sorghum fields.We think this must be a spring at the bottom right. It was just permanently running into a ditch between two fields.🚲🚲🚲It got a bit boggy at times......but there was always a way through.Time for lunch!Since leaving the UK, we have been making sandwiches for lunch most days, and we quite often cook our own dinners. It's a great way to keep costs (somewhat) down and ensure we're being intentional about it when we do eat out.Lunchtime views.Kayakers drifting by in the background... the only other people we saw during our hour or so on the riverbank.
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B's rock-skipping. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get a video of my rock that skipped 6-7 times, but I promise it happened!
On the road again...... past orchards and farms.The bridge over the Dordogne in Cénac.
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Crossing to the north side of the river.
Luckily only a few short bits of the route involved riding on main roads.Heading off-road again to get down under the bridge and turn back towards Castelnaud.B's view from the bridge.
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The rest of us walked our bikes down, but B decided to ride!
Under the bridge.This side of the river was my favourite. It's about to get even MORE beautiful!We experienced all kinds of track on this ride!The boys handled this big day extremely well.Leafy loveliness.A little jetty.Vine-covered trees.
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Such a fun ride!
The others often had to wait for me due to my frequent stopping to take photos and/or rhapsodise over the views!Honestly. Could it get any more adorable? The answer is yes. Yes, it could.F's expression as he emerged from the trees and saw......these black and white cliffs on our approach into La Roque-Gageac!It's hard to tell in the pic, but there were some fun little hills through here. The boys enjoyed them.A tourist boat on the Dordogne.La Roque-Gageac: one of the most gorgeous towns I have ever seen!😍People were climbing up these stairs, and we later noticed a viewing platform right on top of the cliff!Isn't this just the cutest town you've ever seen?Another tourist boat. The town was busy, but not annoyingly so. It's school holidays here at the moment, and this day (1 Nov) was a public holiday in France for All Saints' Day (La Toussaint).Streets of La Roque-Gageac.Looking back at the town after riding through it. Between the last pic and this one, I nearly fell off my bike but thankfully caught myself! (And no, I wasn't videoing at the time. 😂)Staring down the final quarter of the ride now. Starting to get a bit saddle-sore!Gorgeous greenness!A French barn.By the point we were really looking forward to reaching the end of our ride!Crossing the bridge into Castelnaud-la-Chapelle that we'd driven over five hours earlier. We've seen these upside-down signs a couple of times now in France, and I just looked it up... apparently it's a campaign by farmers to draw attention to their increasingly precarious way of life.Back in Castelnaud, castle visible in the distance.My Strava.
I'm pretty sure this day will go down in my memory as one of the highlights of this trip. The highlights list is already very long, but still... we had perfect weather for this perfect activity in a perfect setting, and the kids were absolute troopers too. Superbe!
