Caves & Castles

Our next stop was Rocamadour. A fortified town with a huge monastery at the very top and ancient pathways and roads twisting up to it. This was another sight I had seen from the Tour de France.
We parked in parking area 4 which is a dedicated Motorhome area but the downside is it costs 16 euros for 24 hours. Very expensive by French standards and we’ve realised that this whole area is a huge tourist trap. On the way out of the caves the lad in the lift told us that in July and august they get 20,000 visitors per day to the cave.
Luckily we are only sharing this car park with one other person this time of year.
After parking we took a walk down the footpath and the town was right in front of us. It was an amazing sight just seeing it grow out the side of the cliff.
We took what they call the photographers path down into the town although it was very photogenic and once at ground level we took a slow walk through the cobbled streets looking in the shops passing through 3 ancient archways.
Once it started to rain again we turned around and started back for Wanda up a huge slope carrying us the 150 meters from ground level back up to the height where we had parked.
Once the rain had stopped I decided to get my bike off the back and head out.
I left the car park and headed towards town but before I got there I turned left on the road and hit the S bends that snaked all the way to the bottom. This was the route of the 2024 Tour de France.
I headed down the winding road at 50kph through a tunnel where all the TDF jerseys had been painted on the walls and then the riders names started appearing on the road. I was cycling in the footprints of some of my hero’s and as the road veered up and started climbing more and more names appeared.
I was super excited to be riding on roads that I had seen on the tv, and although it was a short ride of just 30km it was over 500 meters of climbing with gradients of 10%.
I got back to Wanda at 5:30pm and just as I finished putting my bike on the back the heavens opened and it helled it down.
At 7:30pm the rain had stopped so we took a walk back along the paths in the dark to see Rocamadour lit up and get some photos. It looked beautiful at night.
Then it was back to Wanda to settle in for the night.Read more