As many of you know, I was once a cycle tour guide in Europe (which was the genesis of this blog). The company where I worked for all those years, Blue Marble Travel, has shaped my life in countless ways but sadly no longer exists. A few of weeks ago, I was back in France, riding one of those Blue Marble routes, but not as a guide; this time I was riding solo.

Leaving Rocamadour was tough, it is such a beautiful, incredible place and even though it is not that big, I feel like I could spend so much more time there. But the schedule is the schedule and I needed to be in Entraygues, a town a good 120 kilometers (75 miles) away.

It had been a minute since I had ridden that far in a day and I was a bit worried. My plan was to have shed about 20 pounds and trained much more on my bike before landing in France. Well, neither of those had happened so I was about to set off on this big ride both fat and out of shape (which is at the same time redundant and not redundant, oddly).

The original Blue Marble route called for the clients to take a train part of the way, thus cutting the cycling distance in half, but I was in France to ride my bike and, dammit, that is what I was going to do (unless it was raining, of course, homey hates riding in the rain).

The route, cutting through the south central part of France would take me from the Dordogne Valley and toward the Massif Central and the Cévennes. The first half of the ride was a bit daunting with almost all of the day’s 1100m (3600ft) of climbing coming in the first 35 miles. But if I made it through that, the last 40 miles were close to flat.

The entire route was new for me; I had never been to this part of France, including the destination town, Entraygues. Not only did I know nothing about the town, I had no clue how to pronounce it (the locals say “en-TRY” while those from just a few kilometers away will call it “en-TRAIG” so I hoped not to get lost).

Fans of the Tour de France know that there was a Time Trial in Rocamadour a couple of years ago. The climb out of town was littered with many names painted on the street. As a fan of the sport, it is very cool to know that all the riders rode on this same stretch of pavement, albeit much, much, much faster.

As I mentioned, the first half of the ride was hilly. And pretty spectacular.

Much of the countryside I was riding through looked like this…

…with a random castle thrown in every 30 kilometers or so for grins.

Determined to lose some weight on the trip, I had a salad every day (sure, they were big salads, but…). And before you get on me about the Coke, they are “real” in France as they use real sugar not that high fructose corn syrup abomination.

There was not a whole lot to Entraygues, but the town centered on this lovely bridge (my hotel was just to the right)…

…an older section of town…

…and a castle, of course.

I love doors.

That’s all for this leg of the trip, back again next week with more!