Author: Rob Ainsley

Today I crossed into the South of France. In the morning I was wearing woolly hat and gloves to skirt the Cévennes out of Villefort; in the afternoon I was baking under a hot cloudless sky. I was about the only person baking, though. On Monday it seems almost all the boulangerie-patissiers close. My breakfast…

An easy day today, the first half uphill in the Lot valley, the second half one long downhill. I slipped out of Mende – which is something of a mountain biking hub – this morning via the Old Town, where several shops have the same pro-cycling-message sticker in their window (pic). Not that this passer-by…

The longest and hardest day of the whole trip today: 74 miles’ riding (whatever that is in kilometres) and 1600m of vertical climb (whatever that is in rods, poles or perches). After a dawn start I cycled alongside the Lot for a couple of hours on a misty, damp, atmospheric morning (pic). If you look…

A tedious start to the day, parcelling up and sending home the camping stuff that I won’t be using now that I’m tentless. Then I took a wrong turn and ended up on a main road for ten miles… But it got better. Much better. Better even than the raspberry crumble custard cake thing I…

Despite drizzle all day, the fabulous scenery more than made up. With over 1,000m of climb, so it should have. Things started flat enough, though, with this pleasant railtrail (pic) out of Sarlat. The smooth tarmac and lack of gradient made my bike feel much lighter. Actually, it was lighter. When I unpacked the tent…

A whole day’s rain-free cycling, despite forecast storms, on main roads. My morning coffee stop was in the town of La Douze, where they’d festooned the main street with these beautiful flowers (pic). Until I looked closer, and realised they were plastic bags. There’s an environmental disaster coming when they decommission this lot. An easy…

My progress down west-central France continued with a day of mile-eating on lightly-trafficked main roads under cloudy, sometimes drizzly, English-like skies. The theme continued in the picture-postcard Dordogne town of Brantôme (pic). I wondered why so many French visitors had such drab dress sense and spoke such clumsy English. Then I realised they were English….

I’d decided on a rest day in L’Isle-Jourdain, given the forecast of downpours and the lovely B&B. But the sun came out around ten, and I got itchy feet – I really must get some new trainers – so I set out again. The way out of L’I-J was via the viaduct (pic). Britain isn’t…

Yesterday evening, which was sunny and hot, I couldn’t use the campsite swimming pool because I have shorts-style trunks, which are not allowed in France. (You have to wear budgie smugglers.) But this morning I got my own way. Torrential rain from 4am turned my tent into a swimming pool of my own. It meant…

A mixed day of sunshine, lots of cool cloud, the odd headwind, and drizzle. It made me homesick. Plenty of interesting historic towns and villages to ride through, though. At Airvault I dodged a shower by having lunch in the fine covered market (pic) which was busy with the Saturday marché. It’s about the most…