2 weeks of BIKEPACKING in FRANCE: the off-season adventure! (1/2)

We decided to take the road again for a little autumn adventure. It's not a very popular season for cycling, but you'll see, we really took a lot of it. This season, the colors and the light are really beautiful. Obviously, as you can imagine, leaving in autumn is also a bit of a hassle. Especially in terms of the weather, which is still a bit capricious at the end of the year. But it allows us to be alone in the villages, whereas usually it is very touristy. And then also to enjoy the beautiful colors of autumn in the many paths that we have been able to travel on this journey. Whatever happens, and no matter the season, it is always a pleasure to resume the bike route. And especially to two. For this journey, we decided to start in the south of France, in Marmande, near Bordeaux. And to go back to France to Brittany by land. It allowed us to discover a lot of departments that we did not know. The Lot, the Corrèze, the Creuse, the Indre, the Indre-et-Loire, the Maine-et-Loire, the Mayenne. Until we reached the final point of this adventure. Come on, let's go, we're taking you with us. The beginning of the day with a pair. It's the first day of our adventure. She keeps us company for the adorable breakfast. Let's go for a journey of about two and a half weeks. It's been a long time since we've been together for so long. Last time it was three or four days. Yeah, since the Tour d'Europe, we haven't done it together for so long. We had a lot of trouble with the train. Because we left close to home, on the side of Rennes. And we wanted to get to Marmande, between Bordeaux and Toulouse. And we took a lot of TERs. And there were TERs removed, TERs delayed. So in the end, we calculated, we had to take six TERs in all. We visited seven different stations. Yeah, that's it. But we arrived well at night, last night. And we're so happy. Direction? The Lot Valley, first. Then the Vagabond. Lunch break, on the side of the Lot. We dry, as usual. Towels, tent mat. So, first day. Not terrible weather, but not bad either. Yeah, it's quiet for now. There's not a lot of people. We only cross completely deserted villages. You see, the Lot is still super wide. So we can't wait to go back up and see what's going on a little higher. That's it, end of the stage. We did 85 km today. And we found a great bivouac spot in the woods. So that's so cool. It's 5.30 pm, you have to settle in early in the season. Because it's night in half an hour. And even more under the woods. And so, the stage of the day was not incredible. It wasn't even crazy at all. But that's what's cool about traveling slowly. We also have to see things that we don't necessarily look at in normal time. In particular, we walked along hundreds of monocultures. Off-ground cultures. Intensive farming. We also, as we said, walked along a lot of villages. We felt deserted. But probably a lot of secondary houses. See residences like that, which are occupied only one or two months a year. It was a bit demoralizing, all that. But it's also part of our environment. So it's always interesting to see all that too. And then I think tomorrow it should be a little more fun. There we found the Lot earlier. And then walk along the Lot Valley tomorrow. It should be nice. It's freezing. We put on our jackets. It's about ten degrees here. But the feeling of trees and water right next to us. It felt like minus 8000. But at the same time, did we expect anything else? Leaving in November. I don't know. We've been hungry for a while now. So we were desperately looking for a place to stay for miles. Look at the incredible place we found. Honestly. It's a dream. It's great, there's even a roof. We're good, we'll be able to sit on the floor. We'll be able to eat cold, it's going to be so cool. It feels good. This beautiful bridge. The bridge of Kaor, which is the end of our day. We haven't had time for more than that. But it was a little better than yesterday. What did we think? It was great. So we're going to have a snack. We're going to have a snack and find a place to stay. Even if it's only 3 p.m. We did the step much faster than expected. Because it was flat. So I think we're going to take the time to snack. And settle in early. We went to bed at 6 p.m. yesterday. It's night at 5.30 p.m. We've settled in. 6.30 p.m., midnight. It's time to eat. Do you want soup or a brick for dinner? A brick. A slice of butter. We're Bretons, but still. It's an anti-coral soup. That's what has to make the texture a little gel. It looks good. When it's mixed and heated. We have a good piece of cheese with that. Don't worry, we're going to enjoy it. It doesn't look like a dream. Much less pitiful than earlier. The butter bread turned into a real soup. Great. You can't dream better. How are you? Two rooms, two atmospheres. We just joined the vagabond. We're leaving the lot. We left the green way. For small climbs. But it's beautiful. There's sun. We can't see it from here. It's good here. It's so beautiful. We stopped sleeping there. Oh yeah. We're going to try our first local specialty. The croustade. It's a mixture of croutons and regalade. The apple croustade. It's 10 o'clock, it's perfect. Time for the first snack. We're in Rocamadour. We got here by bike. We're happy because it was quite physical. Rocamadour is a medieval city. It's a very important pilgrimage site. There's a 216 steps staircase. Pilgrims used to climb on their knees. Some still do it. To get to a religious sanctuary. With lots of chapels and churches. It's quite impressive. We're going back to the bike. It's time to find a place to sleep. We still have a long way to go. It's getting dark. It's not too busy. It's a different road. It's so nice. This trail is incredible. It's a GR. It's a hiking trail. We're smart. We're taking the bike. It's great. It's 7.30 pm. It's getting dark. We're reading a book. Before going to sleep. We're killing time. We don't want to sleep at 7.30 pm. We're reading a book. Then an episode of our series. We're going to try not to fall asleep. Before 8.30 pm. It's funny. We're reading an adventure book. I usually read this at home. To travel from home. It's funny to be in an adventure. But still in a quest for adventure. We're getting inspired. Good night. It's freezing this morning. It's freezing. It was a very humid night. A lot of fog. The tent is 6 kg. Today is a day where it's not raining. It's cool. But we need to go to the campsite. To do laundry. To wash ourselves. To recharge our batteries. And we're going to see what the weather says on the next few days. We're going with gloves this morning. We're still following the water. But we changed the river. It's not the lake anymore. It's the Dordogne. We just made a little detour by Carénac. It's a beautiful village. The most beautiful village in France. It's so beautiful. We're happy to have made the detour. But we're starving. If only we could find something to eat. There's not much open during the season. If only we could find something to eat. Just a little thing. No need to hit us like that. We cracked.