Sarlat-la-Canéda

Day 1 - Basel -> Vichy	Day 2 - Vichy	Day 3 - Thiézac	Day 4 - Sarlat-la-Canéda	Day 5 - La Grande Côte
Day 6 - Rigny-Ussé	Day 7 - Cosne-Cours-s/Loire	Day 8 - Cosne-Cours-s/Loire	Day 9 - Riel-les-Eaux	Day 10 - Montbéliard

May 24 – June 3, 2025
Map Link

We could have stayed in the mountains for a week, but we weren’t really set up for multi-day hiking, and wanted to see more of France. After a leisurely breakfast we packed up the biked and headed back down the mountain road. Tonight’s goal wasn’t finalized: we would stop at Sarlat-la-Canéda, have lunch, and then see how we felt. Perhaps we’d try our hand a camping, as the area that we were heading for had dozens of potential camping sites.

Our pace was relaxed and we enjoyed the site of many chateaus along the route. Again, there was very little traffic on the roads, the weather was great, and the scenery was continued to delight. There were a number of roadkill that we passed, and most of them looked like they were from the fox family – I had no idea that France had an abundance of foxes!

At one point I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. We were near the top of a hill with trees and houses, so it was hard to get a good look, but I looked again and as I pointed, I called out to Dan to “LOOK!”: an A400 Atlas was flying low and slow over the hill, directly over our heads. It felt like it would graze the treetops, it was so low! After a couple more short breaks, we rolled into the ancient town of Sarlat-la-Canéda.

Two of my French colleagues highly recommended this town, known for its well-preserved architectural heritage and history. I’m a sucker for an old, preserved, city, and it sounded like Sarlat nailed it.

We parked at the end of town and started to wander up the main street. It really was a well-preserved medieval town, and being a small one, it didn’t take long to get to the other side. But we had skipped a lot of side streets, and we knew that there would be more to see.

Now here’s something that not everyone knows: Dan has a bad back. He’s always had a bad back (two herniated discs), but he can usually manage the pain. But this trip was showing that hours of riding was not working for him, despite the frequent breaks. He had about two hours of riding before it got bad, and then maybe another two hours before it got unbearable. With this in mind, we decided to stay in Sarlat for the night, giving him an early break.

Finding a room for the night was not as easy as we had hoped, but then on Booking.com I found a central hotel, in a 15th century rampart tower, for a reasonable price. Booking of course added the stress of “last room available!” at La Couleuvrine, so we booked it right away, and then walked over to it to check in and figure out where to park the motorcycles.

That “last room” line was bullshit, of course, but I did’t learn that until it was essentially too late. Our room (#29) sucked. The room itself was great: small but clean and cozy, but its location was awful: directly over the kitchen vents and service door. The overpowering smell of the food being prepared below made us flee the room and our little outside terrace, with the promise from the front desk that the service would be over by 9:30.

We explored the streets, usually with people around looking around just like we were. But eventually we felt like we had seen most of what the town had to offer and started to head out of the town center and into the surrounding neighborhoods. There were some incredibly beautiful homes on the hills and it was an enjoyable diversion from the old town.

Dinner is served late in France – not as late as in Spain, but still later than what we’re used to. Therefore we were one of the first people to sit down when the local restaurant XXXX opened. By then we were tired from walking and it was nice to just sit down. Of course it was only after we returned from dinner to our room, ready to relax, did we experience the Joy of a Room over the Kitchen.

Day 4