Our time in France is winding down. We took the weekend off from the renovations. On Friday we drove to Sarlat for a mellow day of wandering around. Sunday was supposed to be completely off with a lazy morning, a relaxing afternoon and a pleasant evening with a gorgeous sunset but by the end of breakfast we already had plans to go to Loubressac’s flea market, do a short hike to Autoire’s waterfall, swing by a vide-grenier, pay a visit to Carennac, and swim in the Dordogne. In the end we were to lazy for a swim but we watched the sunset.
Sandwiched in between was a bike ride to Gramat on Saturday. I didn’t choose Gramat, Strava did and I had no objections. I started relatively early to avoid the heat and the ride was smooth until it wasn’t: once again Strava sent me on a rocky road. My mistake – I didn’t check the options on the Strava app. Going down on a sloping narrow road I was actually thinking: ”Hope Strava ain’t going to play the same trick on me again”. I guess I am an eternal optimist. Alas, at the very bottom the pavement abruptly ended and I was left with a dilemma: to cycle back up to the main road or to plow ahead. I chose the latter. This time around I didn’t even try to cycle – the path was just too rocky and steep – I pushed and carried Greengo for about a kilometer before I got back on a paved road. I stopped at Gramat counting on finding an ice cream shop but to no avail. There weren’t any other issues the rest of the way.
Maybe I should design my own routes instead of relying on Strava and at least google the ice cream shops before choosing my destination if a scoop of ice cream is the goal. I better learn from my mistakes to avoid disappointments.
This weekend in numbers:
54 km — distance cycled
77 — protected monuments in Sarlat’s historic centre
3 468 — Gramat’s population
30 m — height of the waterfall of Autoire, the highest in Lot