60 mile ride, but totally worth it

getting ready for our ride

how cute is he

someone's house

at the cafe having lunch

ruins in  peyrusse

On Wednesday we went for a ride with our friends Jacques and Fabrice.  Of course they told us they would be chez nous at 9:00 am, but didn't arrive until 10:00 am.  But we have realized that is Jacques, he's like the mayor of every town and loves to talk to everyone, so he's rarely on time...he also tweeks his bike every minute he can, alas.   We had no idea where we were going we just followed Jacques.  We took the road to VilleFrance-de-Rouergue and then up through a pretty little village called Villeneuve.  Then we headed a bit east a village called Peyrusse le-roc.   The hill up to the village almost broke me though...at that time we had already road 30 miles, i was starving and it was extremely steep.

We road into the village and stopped at the first Cafe/Aubergue we came too.  The owner and his dog were standing out front and immediately struck up a conversation with Jacques.  He told us they had a great lunch, so we went in.  The daily lunch special - beautiful pork chops, mac & cheese (the french way), bread, water, red wine and dessert.  10 euros each...it was so amazing and tasty.  The owner and his wife were very friendly and the man behind us also got into our conversations.   I find the people here so incredibly friendly and warm.  For dessert we had french toast.  At least that was what it was to us, day old french bread, with egg and powered sugar.  They called it something else.  I'm sure Betty or Loulou knows what it is called. It was a great lunch and after an hour or so we were ready to head home...at least we thought. 

When we arrived in Peyrusse le-roc and went into the cafe we noticed all these postcards, pictures and books about this ruin called Chateau Inférieur which was built around 761.  We had to go and look at it, but it was down these very very steep cobble stone streets so we had to leave our bikes, take off our bike shoes and walk down the hill.  Oh my god...that's all we could say.  Stunning and beautiful and amazing.  There are even ladders that will take you out to the ruin.  We had to laugh because there are just tiny rails that keep you from falling.  We said that would never fly in America, wouldn't be safe enough.  We didn't go out to the ruin, since we didn't have shoes on, but we'll come back to visit when we are not on the bike.

We headed back down towards VilleFrance and I was spent.  Bonked is the word we use.  It's just that these hills here are so steep and long and I'm not used to them and the speed the guys ride is fast and I wanted to keep up and not slow them down.  We stopped and I had some chocolate and voila I was better...just needed a boost of sugar to get me home.

We all arrived home tired, but we all agreed it was a bon route.  4 hours in the saddle (60 miles), yesterday was a jour du repos, marché day in Villefrance.