Scouting in France: Dordogne and Bordeaux

January 2015
We decided to be here in France to welcome the new year and scout for new bike tour, new back roads. We already knew Dordogne and St Emilion area, we run cycling tours in beautiful Dordogne already.

Sarlat bike trip
Sarlat

We felt in love with this land of rolling hills, chateaux, cave & prehistory, and excellent food, where besides amazing bike ride you can do canoeing in the river for days!

dordogne river
dordogne river

Anyway we came to experience new hotels, check roads, find new restaurants. And this time we wanted include St Emilion in the custom challenging bike tour we are arranging. Great, we loved chateau Franc Mayne, only 1 km from the famous village, unesco site, surrounded by vineyards.  Only 9 rooms, one different from the other, impressive  cellars. The roads are so secondary all gentle rolling hills, loops to picturesque village: La Sauve, Cadillac (where  Cadillac car founder was born),  Sauveterre, Monsegur, Duras. We are so happy and can’t wait to come in June to cycle.

st Emilion
st Emilion

The other hotel we overnighted was Chateau Les Merles, in the heart of Bergerac vineyards and forests on the hills of the Dordogne river. Very charming and comfortable, plus the gastonomique restaurant surprise us with creative, organic, tasty dishes. Culinary art!

St Genies
St Genies

After Bergerac stage not to be missed is Sarlat. We arrive and Truffle fair was on! In each restaurant in town it was possible to  taste truffle in hundreds of recipes. During rides we liked a lot  St Genies, a little village withits  castle, where time seems to have stopped some centuries ago. The dark side of our scouting is the weight we have put on, we need to go back Tuscany and cycle hundreds of miles for days!

truffle fair
truffle fair