07/29/21 – Strawberry Fields Forever

Every year in May there’s a Strawberry Festival taking place in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, “strawberry country” according to the village slogan. The main attraction is baking a giant strawberry tart using 800 kg of strawberries. Due to the pandemic it was canceled this year but even if it wasn’t we would still have missed it as France opened its doors to foreigners like us only in June.
As I was looking for places to cycle to I decided to go in the opposite direction to my previous outings, namely to Argentât-sur-Dordogne. Conveniently the route passes through Beaulieu, a good enough reason to visit.
As the names of these towns imply they are situated on the banks of the Dordogne River, consequently I was cycling on small roads alongside the river.
I first stopped in Argentât; it was livelier than when Julie and I visited in winter while house hunting but still rather quiet and a bit grey.


From there I cycled on the other side of the Dordogne to Monceaux-sur-Dordogne where there was a market of local producers, including strawberry farmers. I got myself a cradle of fresh strawberries as a consolation for missing out on a piece of the giant strawberry pie.

And on the way back home I passed through Beaulieu, a pretty medieval village, sleepy outside of its strawberry festival and market days.

Hopefully I will get to participate in one of its future feast of the strawberry.

P.S. About ten years ago, while on tour in Liverpool, I, a Beatles fan, visited the famous Strawberry Fields.

Today in numbers:

75 km — distance cycled
8 m — diameter of the giant strawberry tart baked in Beaulieu during the Strawberry Festival, a Guinness World record