“It’s an art to contemplate what getting old offers us rather than what it takes away from us.”
(André Gide, Les cahiers de la petite dame)

I like to think that what life has to offer us, we should take. 
For me the road ahead is here in France, and the start of our adventures. The Dordogne Valley, at the moment anyway is one of our first stops. Both Esther and I have made it this far on our epic journey through Europe. After a 3 day stop over just outside Tours, we pitched our tent and got a taste of the good life, well cold and wet life as it turns out, for the weather has been much the same as what we had before leaving Ireland. 

Saying that, we had one good day on the bikes cycling much of the flat agricultural land around the village of Ste Catherine de Fierbois. Our 68k cycle took us via some very quaint villages and old Chateaux´s, what the region is infamous for. It´s hard to say if it´s all typically French, because for us it is just different. Sand stone buildings with clay roof tiles, shuttered windows and old farm tractors. No wine swigging, beret wearing old men, as yet.

Our last night was plagued with heavy thunderstorms, and huge downpours. Only a minor tent leak in the porch area, much to our relief. 

The weather sadly hasn´t improved much since then. It´s been cold, even here in the Vezere Valley, world famous for it´s numerous prehistoric sites, cave dwellings and countless era´s of historic significance. 

Men have lived here from time immemorial, during the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages, the Hundred Years War, the agricultural and industrial eras, the time of scientific prehistoric study and now the present period of tourism. 

But our quest is one of mountain bike trails that are said to litter the surrounding the area like beers can on an Irish beach in summer. So fingers crossed the weather will break and give us a couple of days on to wheels. And a new sleeping bag at this rate as I only packed a summer one.

The luck of the Irish was not with us today, and neither was the weather. More rain and low cloud meant the trails we muddy and slippery, so riding would not have been pleasant. Instead we headed to stock up on some food supplies and then to visit one of the many cave systems in the area, Grotto de Rouffignac.

The cave of Rouffignac, La Grotte de Rouffignac, containing ice age art has been known for centuries and was described in 1575 by Francois de Belleforest. It is located in the heart of the Perigord, between Bergerac and Sarlat in the Dordogne region. The site has more than 250 etchings, line drawings and cave paintings dating from the Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian, more than 13 000 years old). With a length of over eight kilometres, this cave is one of the largest painted caves in Europe. 

Well worth a visit, just make sure you get the timing right as we keep finding more and more, the French love their long lunch breaks.. Anyway, a small train takes you about 1 kilometre under ground, and follows a series of old rivers that carved the caves many moons ago. It´s pretty eerie, but really cool at the same time.

From Caves to camping with Wellington & Smonkey. Some modern art and
Marvels of modern engineering. France so far..

So despite the weather we still enjoyed the area, and were sorry to be packing up to leave the following morning. We really need some warm sunny weather after a week of rain and cold.

Heading South we some discovered that our plans for the north of Spain we going on hold, again due to heavy rains in the region. Our only option was to head Montpellier and then the national parks around that area. So far so good, sun shine, warm air and not a cloud in the sky.. Leaving the sand stone buildings and golden clay earth of the vezere valley, the landscape changed to deep red soil and a harsh rocky terrain, perfect for biking. We crossed the Millau Viaduct, a massive suspension over the river Tarn.

Designed by the French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster, it is the tallest bridge in the world with one mast's summit at 343.0 metres (1,125 ft) above the base of the structure. It is the 12th highest bridge deck in the world, being 270 metres (890 ft) between the road deck and the ground below. Millau Viaduct is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Montpellier. Construction cost was approximately €400 million. It was formally inaugurated on 14 December 2004, and opened to traffic on the 16th. The bridge has been consistently ranked as one of the great engineering achievements of all time. The bridge received the 2006 International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Outstanding Structure Award. Cool.

Staying the night in Montpellier, we moved a little north to Uzes, where we found a nice we camp site and have hunkered down for the night. There are lots of marked VTT, French MTB, trails in the area, mostly with small climbs, which is fine, as the main attraction is the small quaint town of Uzes. With it´s small winding streets more like that of an Italian or Spanish town, we will probably stay here for a few days and dry off.