Thursday 19th September

After a bit of a map chat last night, Wendy and I are of to Cahors this morning. Why are we going to Cahors? Well, we’ve never been there before and it’s a name that sounds really familiar so we want to find out why, but the real reason it that it is on the way to our most favourite place in the whole of France; Lacanau!

The forecast for most of France is changing for the worse, just like it seems is happening in the UK. It looks as if it is going to get wet around the Med and Wendy is desperate for a bit of beach time, so we are going to head for the west coast and see if we get lucky.

Its at times like this you realise just how big France is. It is almost 300 miles as the crow flies (no more vultures here!) and almost 400 on the wriggly roads we will be taking. Cahors is more or less, exactly half way. It took us six hours to drive along some really beautiful roads. Apart from the rugged scenery, you can tell they are scenic as there were loads of motorbikes on the roads too. So if you are a biker, you might want to try the N106 and the N88 that follow the Lot and Tarn valleys. On the way we crested the Col Jalcreste at 820 metres, the Col de Montmirat (1046 m), and the Col de la Fagette (882 m). The driving was so ‘interesting’ that by the time we reached Cahors I had cramp in my left calf and shin from the workout I had given the clutch (didn’t get into 6th the whole way).

The Campsite Rivière de Cabessut is on left bank of the river Lot, and Wendy has deemed it a ‘cute little site.’ It has a lovely heated pool and a smart looking bar. The pitches are a good size and the showers have central heating. It even has its own vineyard. The advertised thirty minute walk into the town would have been achievable if we had done a little more training, otherwise it was more of an optimistic goal. However it was a lovely walk in the evening sunshine along the mighty river Lot. The French really know how to do a river. The Lot was like the Jordan, deep and wide, but unlike the Jordan it also has an impressive rugby club on its bank. Cahors Rugby has five immaculately kept pitches, four with flood lights and, on an island in the river, the first XV pitch has a stadium a RFU Championship side would be proud of.

We didn’t really have the time to properly explore Cahors. Wendy was hungry by now and had no enthusiasm for a bit of culture, so we were looking for a good restaurant. After turning her nose up at burger and pizza places she found a good one though. We had the meal of the day which for Wendy meant Salade Quercyoise and Salman while I had the Toast Catalan and Canard – delicious! It made up for missing out on seeing the oldest fortified bridge in Europe. I apologise for the quality of the photos, but the sun was in the wrong place and where is Foz when you need him (probably climbing a volcano?)