Day 12 - Rocamadour to St-Céré

September 30^th, 2002

descending into the Gaufre de Padirac

We got an early start, but we couldn’t resist heading into town for one more pepito. This time we also indulged in some quiches…mmm. We headed to the Gaufre de Padirac, a spectacular subterranean cave, with a river running through it. We spent several hours exploring this amazing natural phenomenon. The walls went up 103m from the river below; the water at some points was 5m deep, even spooky. Although visiting the cave is geared more towards mass tourism, we still found it to be very interesting.           

Cycling along dry limestone plateaus, we headed back towards the Dordogne for the final time (at least on this trip anyway). We had a spectacular 5km downhill ride to the river. Imagine cycling on a winding road, laced with oak trees by beautiful Quercynoise villages. I could cry writing about it. This is the life. We cycled along the Dordogne to the charming village of Carennac. After touring the town and its pretty Romanesque church we quickly came to the frightening realization that everything in town was closed, which meant NO FOOD!! We quickly scrambled back on our bikes, said our goodbyes to the Dordogne and cycled at top speed, desperately in search of an open boulangerie.

We had a hard climb up from the valley below, but were rewarded with more amazing views of the landscape. We visited two more “plus beaux villages”; Loubressac and Autoire. Autoire, surrounded by high limestone cliffs, dotted with many towers and turrets became one of our favorite towns in the Quercy region. The setting is quite breathtaking. After spending a few hours touring and taking photos, we continued on to St-Céré and called it a night.