Our first trip out is to a little village called Cordes Sur Ciel.
Rocky heights in the sky
Unsurprisingly, the journey out is quite hilly, and there are many stops along the way to consider if we are on the right route.
Eventually, the city comes into view
We padlock our bikes at the bottom of the hill as the roads into the city are all cobbles, and yes, I get the tourist train up into the city, I don't care, I'm on my holidays!
The view from the top is amazing, and everyone agrees that it is a charming little town.
The pretty blue paint of the region is much in evidence.
There are also ancient archways everywhere you look, it's easy to see why this town has become such a favourite with the tourists.
When we get to the bottom of the hill, we find that one of the groups of padlocked bicycles cannot be unlocked. The padlock is jammed.
Plan A is to pick up the group of bicycles, march them through the town to a garage and ask them to use some bolt cutters on the errant padlock. Presenting the evidence of the jammed bicycles, is considered easier than trying to explain in French why we needed access to a very large bolt cutter.
Fortunately, Sarah invokes plan B which is to keep wiggling the padlock until it somehow releases itself. She is now dubbed the master criminal of the group.
The journey home is along very quiet routes through miles of stunning scenery, just as a French cycling holiday should be.
Soon, the three keen photographers of the group are dropping behind, until we realise that we each have one of the three keys to the gites.
After regrouping we can hand over a key, so that we can return home at an extremely leisurely pace.
Sarah now decides that dead sunflowers have a certain beauty, and many more photos are taken. There are fields and fields of dead sunflowers, they must have looked spectacular in full bloom.
When we are not too far from home, Stuart decides that we need to explore a little more, this means that Sarah now enters our world of major navigational mishaps and errors, although of course in Stuart's world we are never lost, just a little misplaced.
After setting off at 10am, we are home by 8pm, which must be some sort of record for a 35 mile ride!
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