Flashpacking the Lot:
Cycling from Mende to Bordeaux

My bike setup for "flashpacking" the Lot and Garonne River drainage

The most highly anticipated part of our holiday in France involved quite a lot of planning, from designing the route using the online mapping service called Ride With GPS, to deciding what to take, to booking accommodation. "Flashpacking" is a termed used by cyclists to describe riding a bike with a minimal amount of gear and a credit card, so you don't have to carry camping or cooking equipment. 

Before I proceed any further I'd like to insert special thanks to our friends in Toulouse, Michel and Brigitte. Without their wonderful help and hospitality it would not have been possible for us to have such a long and elaborate holiday here in France. Including our arrival, we have shuttled to and from Toulouse three times already and there is still another short visit to come before we leave for home in a week's time. (More about that later.) 
Alors Michel et Brigitte, nos plus sincères remerciements à vous deux.

Going from Mende to Bordeaux would involve something between 500 and 550 kilometres of riding, depending on how many wrong turns we took and route alterations due to road works, etc. During the pandemic we had come up with the idea of riding along the River Lot to the Garonne and then on to Bordeaux, which seemed more like a dream than anything else at that stage. 

The Lot valley is steeped in history and the geography changes a fair bit as you descend from 730 metres above sea level at the town of Mende down to where it joins the Garonne at a few dozen metres above sea level and then travel on the the Garonne estuary at Bordeaux. 

The town of Mende itself dates back to ~ 200 BC, although there doesn't seem to be anything still standing from those early days. However, there is a graceful bridge dating back to the 13th century that apparently has never been destroyed by flooding. An impressive cathedral commissioned by Pope Urbain V  in the 14th Century also testifies to the town's long and significant history. 

Days 1 and 2: Toulouse to Mende & and a rest day

It is about a 7 ½ hour train journey from Toulouse where we were visiting our friends Brigitte and Michel to Mende. The trip included a short stopover and transfer in Nimes from quite a fast train to quite a slow one.

At Toulouse Matabiau Station, ready to start another adventure

Our friend Brigitte's place is only about 15 kms to the big train station in Toulouse, and her partner Michel was keen to escort us from there so off we went. Most of the riding was pretty much like what you can see in the short video below ... 

... but Michel was keen to show off the centre of the city to us and, it being a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the area was flooded with people meaning a very slow passage for about a kilometre, including often having to get off and walk. Di was quite unsettled by this and made it very clear to Michel that she would like to exit the area as quickly as possible (!) and afterwards the last few kilometres proceeded more sanguinely. 

We thanked and farewelled Michel at Matabiau Station ...

Michel and Dianne outside Gare Matabiau

... and then found our seats on the train to Nimes and hung our bikes ...

Our two bikes hanging beside another to the right

Once in Nimes we transferred to an intercities train to continue onward to Mende. This was a much slower train on a less smooth track and the number of passengers continued to diminish as we continued on the end of the line at Mende. There wasn't a specific place for our bikes but there was lots of room for us to park them and plenty of space to for us to stretch out too ...

The lighting on the train wasn't great for taking pictures!

By the time our train pulled into the station in Mende it was almost 10 pm so we had a few kilometres to ride in the dark to our accommodation.

Both because of our late arrival and we'd discovered that Mende is steeped in history we thought it would be a good idea to have a full day there before starting our journey westward. It was quite overcast and showery the next morning, so not a brilliant day for sightseeing but we had a nice walk and found a terrific brasserie ... 

If we ever go back to Mende we will stay in this hotel and have breakfast each morning here!

... where we had a late breakfast ...

A pretty good way to start the day, especially the next morning when I added a croissant!

We wandered around the town for a couple of hours ...

Starting here in Mende, we noticed many wonderful gardens on our journey along the Lot

There is a convent here in Lot and I think it might be the building in the background

Autumn colour promising nice views ahead

The Pont Notre Dame built in the 13th century

One of the more recent bridges spanning the River Lot at Mende

Such steep roofs suggest a heavy snow load in winter

This must be a wonderful place to hang out on a hot summer afternoon

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame and Saint-Privat

A statue of Pope Urbain V who commissioned the cathedral stands in front of it

... before returning to our accommodation to rest up for the morrow. But while we'd been in town we noticed a sign indicating there was an Italian restaurant called "Notto's" up a side street, where we returned for dinner just on dusk ...

On a warm evening it would be lovely to eat out here in the courtyard but not today!

Back on the Bikes: Day 1 ~ Mende to Saint Géniez

The first thing we needed to do the morning of our departure from Mende was walk into town and have breakfast at the terrific brasserie we'd discovered on our explorations the day before. It might seem odd for me to start today's description with a picture of a cup of coffee ...

Definitely the BEST coffee since landing in France

... but when I saw a proper espresso machine I asked the wonderful woman who was serving if she could make me a café creme grande with steamed milk and she said "bien sur!". It was the first time I'd had someone make me a coffee since we landed in France with care and attention to detail. It made the start of the trip westward seem very promising! There were some nice touches inside this brasserie and although I'm not generally one for knick knacks I really did like these little figurines ...

Breakfast over, we walked back to our apartment, changed into our cycling kit and set off. We'd already been impressed with the clearly delineated cycling lanes along the major route leading in and out of town but riding along them during early morning traffic made us appreciate them even more. We'd chosen to take a slightly more direct route towards St Geniez than the one which would have take us out of town on a less busy road but there was a good paved shoulder along the Route Nationale and we felt perfectly safe. It didn't feel like long at all before we were on much quieter road for the rest of the day, which provide for a most enjoyable day to start our trip. Here's a short video to show what those three sections were like ... 

We spent most of the day's journey travelling alongside the Lot through deciduous forests like ...

Occasionally we'd ride through a bit of farmland ...

We mostly rode past rather than through small villages along the route but did see some nice houses and gardens along the way ...

... and I detoured onto the bridge that took the main road up to the village of Saint Laurent d'Olt to take this photo ...

... before backtracking to the narrow road that would prove to be one of the most charming sections of the whole trip, and which we'd follow on and off for the next four days of riding. At this point we were clearly on the Véloroute de la Vallée du Lot which was made abundantly clear for cyclists and motorists alike ...

It was gorgeous riding especially when we encountered the first real hill ...

... and this quiet beauty continued for the rest of the day's ride ... 

In designing the route, I'd kept the distance for this day down to only 70 kms so we could get accustomed to the extra weight of our bike baggage and we rolled int Saint Géniez nice and early ...

Day 2: St Géniez to Capdenac Gare

With a Lot (😉) of rain overnight the skies were still overcast and the roads wet when we set off from Saint Géniez the next morning but we got warmed up nice and quickly with a the main hill for the day greeting us after a few kilometres. Again we were riding through lovely forests and occasionally we'd pedal past random buildings ...

Once up and over that hill we rolled down into some very fertile looking land for quite a few kilometres with some impressive farmhouses...

Soon we were down and riding alongside the river and passing randonneurs walking one of the many pilgrim routes which cross France ... 

and closing in on Espalion, the first town of the day where we thought we might as well stop for a coffee ...

Back on the road, before long we rode towards another lovely town ...

... and then  crossed the river and rode right alongside its shore for  a while ...

Starting to get hungry we were delighted to find a restaurant right alongside the road at about the halfway point of the day's riding ...

Refreshed, back to the bikes we went for some more quiet, beautiful riding in cool conditions ...

By now the terrain had really flattened out and we rode through some very rich farmland ...

... and past some impressive castles, including this beauty ...

... past the town of Cajarc where this bike shop with its end of season sale was unable to tempt me to stop other than to take a photo ...

... and finally through Capdenac Gare and onto our accommodation for the night which was a few kilometres out of town on our route westward which brought to an end our longest ride of the route at 115 kilometres.

Day 3: Capdenac Gare to Cahors

Dianne liked the flowers and insisted I pose beside them with her bike

This was another day that started out cool and overcast but improved as we rode westward. We were noticing that the autumn colours seemed to be intensifying day by day, but that might have been due to a change in the mix of trees along our route ...

In places, fallen leaves gathered along the roadside ...

Another day, more chateaux to look at, including this rather sombre-looking one ...

Beautiful bridges across the river continued to be a regularly occurring feature too ...

... and cliffs close by the river on both sides became more evident as we neared Saint Cirq-Lapopie ... 

which we'd visited from Cahors on our bikes about three weeks before ...

We thought we'd ride up and through the village this time but ... we were wrong! 

Look closely and you can see me pushin my bike up the steep, wet slippery cobbles!

The village seemed to have the one main street you can see above and a network of very narrow and steep laneways like this one ...

It wasn't the best day or time to visit Saint Cirq-Lapopie, with the occasional shower making the cobbles slippery and the eateries still closed so we continued on up the road to the lookout and descended to where we thought would be the other end of the chemin halage  and turned onto a steep where Di stopped halfway to catch her breath and take a photo looking back up ...

... and then another looking down ...

Note the little red flags on the left indicating a lot of loose gravel which had washed down and across the road

Riding ahead of her, at the bottom I discovered we hadn't come out past the chemin halage but just before it started ...

Not happy,  as I hate pushing my bike and knew if we went through the chemin halage we'd be pushing our bikes for at least 400 metres, I would soon become even less happy. As I turned around I heard Di calling out. Somewhere on the descent she'd got a puncture so I rode back and got to work taking her seatpost bag off, turning the bike upside down,  removing the wheel and its tyre to find the problem. It turned out there was a tiny piece of rock with a very sharp tip embedded in the tyre. I removed that and made it clear to Di that I'd rather ride another 10 kilometres than push my bike through the towpath. I managed to persuade her with the argument that if we went through the halage we didn't know when we'd be able to get something to eat, whereas if we backtracked and crossed the bridge we'd been across on our previous visit ...

As it turned out the place where we'd eaten on our last visit was closed but only a couple of hundred metres down the road there was a very nice restaurant that restored our spirits immensely. An added bonus was that this time as we road along the north bank of the Lot towards Cahor the wind was assisting rather than hindering our progress.

We focussed on getting to Cahors to find our accommodation but Di did pause briefly to make this lovely photo looking across the river ...

We spent the next day wandering around Cahors enjoying the old village ...

And, like everyone else spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the best angle to photograph the famous Valentré Bridge. In the end I gave up and just putting together this mash-up ...

So, that was the first half our journey from Mende to Bordeaux in the bag. An extra ten kilometres and a puncture to fix just add a bit more interest before our rest day in Cahors. The big bonus for me though was on the rest day I stuck my head in a bike shop that was moving a kilometre up the road and was having a sale so they could cart as little as possible from one place to the next. I picked up and excellent pair of Castelli bib shorts that was already cheaper than I could get them in Australia and they had a 30% reduction sticker on them. Very nice day off the bike indeed. 😁