Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A Bicycle Tour in the Lot Valley of France - Part 2

This is the second part of my report on my May trip to the Lot Valley in France. For the first part, page down below this report.

During our third day at Domaine Du Haut Baran, we biked from the Haut Baran south to cross the Lot River in Vire-Sur-Lot and then turned right onto the D5 to ride to Lacapelle-Cabanac. We climbed 500 feet in altitude to the Lacapelle overlook then rode downhill to the Lot River again and crossed via the suspension bridge in Touzac. We followed farm roads along the river to Condat and a small mill stream in town where we saw a beautiful swan in the river.

Then we cycled to the Bonaguil Chateau, (Wikipedia article) the last of the fortified castles built in France in the 13th century.  This ride was 18 miles long, and we arrived at the Chateau in time to have lunch with Belgian beer at a restaurant outside before William, a French history buff, gave us an excellent tour of the grounds that lasted the rest of the afternoon.




That evening we dined at Henry's restaurant in Puy L’Eveque and had an excellent meal.

On the fourth day, we rode in the support van to Mercuès then cycled to the nearby Chateau Lagrezette winery for a morning tasting. The winery tasting room and one of its vineyards are shown in the first two photos below. The next two show some of the beautiful wisteria that was in bloom everywhere we rode.





After the winery we rode to the farmers' market in Luzech (see photos below) to select and buy goodies for lunch, including cheeses, meats, breads, fruit, and paella. I also bought some pâte and foie gras to take home.






Then we crossed the Lot River in Castelfranc and rode to Grezel to picnic beside the mill stream. William is in the white shirt cutting cantalope in the last photo.




After a wine-soaked lunch, we rode to the river’s edge in Puy L’Eveque and then along the LaGrezette vineyards to Vire-sur-Lot. We stopped to tour the church in Vire (first two photos below) before a ride in the van back to the Haut Baran. The chef-prepared dinner that evening featured Confit du Canard (last photo).



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