On Sunday, July 1st, we shared a quick breakfast with our friends Pat and Eric (crew of Cutter Loose) and the four of us hoofed across the street to the Bordeaux train station. Here we gathered up with a new group of cycling friends and Brian Dunn, our trip leader from
Backroads Cycling. After quick introductions, we boarded a bus that would take us a couple of hours east where we would get our bicycles and take off on our six-day cycling adventure.
The bus ride allowed us to chat with our cycling mates, learn how the week would go, understand procedures and get some background about France, its people and customs. Brian stood in the front of the bus much of the time, sometimes holding on as we went through turns. He confirmed that Americans have an opinion of the French as being reserved and off-putting. In fact, the French think that Americans are rude and in your face. Brian let us know how important the greeting is to the French. So, instead of immediately getting in their face with a request, he suggested that a simple "Bonjour Monsieur" or "Bonjour Madame" would get a return of same, and most probably a smile and willingness to chat a bit. We immediately adopted this and found friendly faces everywhere.
Backroads does an amazing job as a tour company. They prepare each day with precision, cater to each person's desires, assure everyone is content and has what they need to enjoy each day.
We finally arrived at a small park where each of us found our bicycle, helmet, water bottle, trunk pack and a red triangle to wear around our waist. Each of these had our names on them so we could keep track of them throughout the week. We also each got a Garmin GPS that had been programmed with the rides for each day. We just had to follow the purple line, listen for the beeps when it was time to turn, and enjoy the terrain and views. It was absolutely delightful!
We expected Day One to be a bike fit-out time and a 2-3 mile jaunt. It was, instead, a "short" ride of 20 kilometers (12 miles), and much of it was UP a long hill. We came to find out that this part of France is quite full of hills! Sharon had to stop mid-way to catch her breath. Greg did great. We ended the day at
Le Vieux Logis, a Relais and Chateaux inn in the sweet little town of Tremolat. Miraculously, our large and weighty bags were already in our room. After a light glass of wine and a short lecture about Truffles, we dined on the shaded patio and enjoyed an amazing five course meal. Whew! It was a long day, but very cool! We were thinking we'll be liking the rest of this week!
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| Some of our first views |
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Roasted Turbot with Stuffed Zucchini Flower
in lightly truffled tomato juice |
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| Backyard of Le Vieux Logis |
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| First View of the Dordogne River |
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| Lessons from the Truffle Farmer |
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| Sharon and Pat enjoying a glass with other cycling guests |
Every day started with a yummy French breakfast of organic yogurt (we passed the farm where they made it on one of our rides), fresh fruit, fresh-squeezed juices, eggs, sausages, and of course, baguettes and croissants! We needed to stock up for our ride! Then, we gathered out by the barn or wherever the bikes had been stored overnight, packed up some healthy snacks for the road, applied sunscreen, and learned what the day would bring. Lucie (the other tour leader) or Brian oriented us to the route each day. They described the length of that day's route, where the hills were, climbs and descents, where there would be amazing views, what the lunch stop would offer, and a couple extra tour treats along the way.
Each day was special and unique. Cool stops during the week included a local market in the middle of a very small, but beautiful town, a deep cave tour with prehistoric drawings, 2000 year old Roman ruins in a small village, a 16th century castle tour, and a Grand Cru Classe vineyard tour, tasting and lesson. The views along the way were amazing, the terrain challenging, the company of the other riders joyful and great weather almost every day. Each evening was either another multi-course French Michelin-starred meal or a comfortable local Bistro in the town where we were staying. We moved to new accommodations twice during the week, and each time our bags magically appeared in our room at day's end. Any request was met with a smile and a "sure, will do".
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Lucie's set up for our day - we loved the way she portrayed this!
The black tape is our route, the kitchen items are hills or special landmarks! |
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| The local market offerings |
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| A dozen local Saucisses! |
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| More dried fruits than we have ever seen! |
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| All types of olives - all local |
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| We purchased morels - now to find the right recipe! |
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| We bought cheese from this guy |
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| Sharon and Byron (another guest on the trip who loves olives!) |
Twice in the week, Lucie, then Brian, served their own specially prepared picnic lunch for us. Lucie's included fresh arugula, tomato and watermelon salad, sausages, olives, pâté de foie gras Greg's fav!), pasta salad, baguettes and yummy desserts; Brian's included a variety of pâté, a mache, pear, walnut, blue cheese salad (Sharon's fav!), cheeses of a variety and of course, fresh breads! When Greg asked about the three versions of pâté, Brian referred to one as groton. Gorton, spelled a little differently, is one of the Page family's hand-me-down pork pâté recipes, so Greg was elated to find it in France where his great-grandparents came from! This version was made with large bits of pork and had less spice than the Page version and so fun to find! The wonderful lunch desserts included tarts, cakes and fresh fruits. All of it was lovingly prepared for us and enjoyed by all!
There were always three routing options for each day. The morning ride was usually 30-35 kilometers, and the afternoons another 25 - 35 kilometers. Depending on your ambition you could ride all day with only a lunch break with the group, or catch a ride back on the van if you were done for the day after lunch. If you got a flat (we were fortunate enough to escape this, but there were plenty of flats during the week), you could call one of the team leaders, or they would catch up to you as they rode the route in their vans, and make the quick change. One day, there were so many flats that Lucie had to give up her wheel and call Kelly, another Backroads helper, for a ride to lunch. She spent her lunch changing flats in the van. The other team members were Kelly, who drove the van most of the week, and Michael who was our luggage schlepper, as well as other support. Both were very much appreciated. They all worked very hard, kept a really positive attitude, and made us all feel special and welcomed.
The first three days we were in the Dordogne River Valley and through rolling farmland and forests. We appreciated the forests because we had high 80-degree days and full sun. We saw fields of geese getting fattened up for foie gras, huge rolls of hay, sunflower fields and a kiwi orchard! By the fourth day, we began entering the St Emilion region which is literally filled with vineyards, one after another for many kilometers in every direction. Many of these are world famous in the wine community.
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| Click on any photo to enlarge |
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Lunch break- notice the wine!!!
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| A brief walk through this small artsy town - uphill!!! |
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| Off again! |
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| These buildings appear to be growing right out of the rock face |
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| Click on any of the photos to enlarge! |
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| The Dordogne |
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| The fattening up for foie gras! Those are geese in the background |
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| One of the Backroads vans. The racks on top accommodate a dozen bikes! |
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| Pat enjoying her healthy snack! |
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| The restroom at our picnic stop |
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| Lunch at our Foie Gras store and restaurant |
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| A beautiful sunflower farm |
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| Ancient bridge over the Dordogne |
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| Kiwis! Who knew? |
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Our group of 26
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One evening in the middle of our four course meal,
we were all surprised with this wonderful event! |
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| Brian doing our morning route review. |
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| A few of today's hills and an extra side route of more hills if you wanted more mileage. |
Thursday was our favorite ride of the week. There was heavy thunder, lightning and rain the evening before. There were still showers around at breakfast, so we all left thinking we'd be back very soon and very wet. But, by 9am the sky cleared and the air was fresh and cool, a welcomed relief from the previous 90-degree days. This was also the least challenging of morning rides with gently rolling roads, completely surrounded by Chateaux and vineyards. It was gorgeous!
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| You can see that Greg has had more than his share of baguettes and pâté this week! |
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| Click any of these to enlarge...except the one with Greg's baguette belly! |
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Chateau Pavie Macquin - the Vineyard where we had a lecture, tasting and lunch.
It's a premiere grande cru winery, meaning very good and expensive. |
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| The concrete vats behind Max, our lecturer |
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| Brian's fabulous picnic! |
We took over 1000 photos and it is so hard to choose! Here are more -
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| Roman ruins |
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The ruins with the "new" church built over them.
The new church is several hundred years old. |
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Our lunch hosted by local innkeepers that day. In the background is
the bike the owner's uncle rode when his team won the Tour de France in the late 1950's |
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| The bed and breakfast at lunch |
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| Working window shutters are everywhere in France - all beautiful |
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| Eric, Pat, Brian, Lucie, Sharon and Greg |
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| No numbers on the rooms, but a monkey holding the name of a St Emilion Vineyard! |
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| The view from the terrace at Hostelliere de Plaisance |
Our last night was in St Emilion at our hotel, Hostelliere de Plaisance's Two Michelin-starred restaurant. It was pretty amazing. As always, conversation among the group at our table was lively, and we were fortunate to have Lucie join our table. It was a beautiful meal and a fitting last night together.
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| Our group for the week - such interesting people! |
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| A couple of our desserts |
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Scenes in St Emilion
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| The Bell Tower in St Emilion |
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| Narrow, stone, cobble....same as 1000 years ago. |
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| Some streets are so steep that they have railings! |
On our last morning of the
Backroads trip, we arose early to get on the road and get in our last spin of the week. Greg and Sharon took off before the crowd and enjoyed a quiet 20 kilometer ride through the countryside. After packing up and preparing to leave, we all shared one last lunch in St Emilion. It was a very memorable trip and we will be talking about it for years to come.
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| Working the vines the old-fashioned way is coming back into vogue |
Later that afternoon, we hopped a big bus back to the Bordeaux train station, made a mad, stressful dash to just barely make our TGV train, and caught our breath as we sped to Paris at up to 200 miles per hour. This trip covers 500 kilometers or 310 miles in just over two hours - very cool. We were so rushed boarding that we entered the wrong car - first class! Twice an attendant came by and checked our tickets. Each time they shrugged and let us happily stay where we were. Tres bien! Viva la France!
Our next posting will include the last four days of our two-week trip - Paris!
Jusque là -
