Day 72 - Carennac to St Cirq la Poppie - 65kms

We packed up our beautiful and antiquated house in Carennac and drove 50kms to Figeac in the Sthn Dordonge area to cycle the pilgrims route to St Cirq la Poppie.

The pilgrims trail is one of 4 in France that join the famous 1000 + year old pilgrims route to Santiago de Compestalla in Spain. Even cycling todays short section we saw evidence that the pilgrims route is still in use.

Villages en route on quiet roads all appeared to have a medieval feel to them

The town of St Sulspice gave us a close up view of cliff side dwellings
Kim following us was so entranced by the scenery she attempted to turn the van around on a steep impossibly narrow corner in the village leaving the van momentarily stuck with a sign wedged against the mirror and the prospect of a drop off the cliff side road if the Van got away from her.

Linton, Kim & Kev - prior to the dramas at St.Sulspice !

Linton cooly reversed the vehicle in an 80pt turn and then calmly stated that it was time for a group beer !

The remaining ride to St Cirq was amazing with every corner on the traffic deserted roads revealing even more scenic villages than the one we passed buried into the cliffs and rock overhangs

Stunning - St Cirq la Poppie

Emerging from a tunnel St Cirq provided s stunning view from the opposite side of the river
with it's church defying gravity and the village of terrocatta tiled houses clinging to the hill

Our climb to this tiny medieval village was 2kms steeply uphill providing for amazing valley views. This was one of the best riding days on tour.

Time for a drink, some Viv shopping and time for Kim to de stress from the scenario At St Sulspice.

Cliffside village on the way to Cirq la Poppie

The 300km drive to Carcossone completed our day with Viv driving on the French expressways that seemed to have a toll point every 50kms (amazingly KH slept through every toll point!)

Tired we caught sight of the impressive lights of the walled medieval fortress of Carcossone. Finding our apartment was more of a challenge though with reception closed. Thankfully an arriving couple helped solved the Dan Brown mystery by pulling out keys from behind a painting in the lobby!

A rush to Mcdonalds to beat it's 11pm closure at least meant we went to bed with something in our stomachs albeit something that would sit on our stomachs al night!