eventually reaching Souillac and taking a short train ride back to Brive-la-Gaillarde.
Best time to visit
Spring, or late summer to autumn.
The Dordogne and Lot are very popular areas for summer holidays with both French and foreign tourists, so book accommodation in advance if visiting in July or August. Spring and autumn are generally mild seasons for cycle touring in southwest France, but winters can be quite cold. June and July are normally the driest months.
Route 8 Rugged and Remote: Auvergne and Languedoc
Character and terrain
Starting from Meymac, on the edge of the high Plateau des Millevaches in the départment of Corrèze, ride southeast, crossing the River Dordogne and cycling up into the Parc Naturel Régional des Volcans d'Auvergne. This is the largest Nature Park in France: a vast, open, rugged landscape of high, rolling hills and extinct volcanoes. Continuing southeast to the hill town of St Flour cross the Truyère river below the immense Viaduc de Garabit railway viaduct and cycle into Lozère, the least populated of France's 96 départments. Here you leave one region for another, the Auvergne for Languedoc.
Parc National des Cévennes (Route 8)
Cycle down the remote Vallée d'Enfer and pass through Marvejols, crossing another of France's great rivers, the Lot, before climbing to the barren plateau known as the Causse de Sauveterre. A descent into the spectacular Gorges du Tarn, one of the most beautiful canyons in Europe, is followed by another climb to the Corniche des Cévennes which grants splendid panoramas of the surrounding Parc National des Cévennes – wild and remote, rich in flora and fauna. This marks the southern end of the great Massif Central, and the route ends with a long descent to St Jean-du-Gard and then on to Alès.
Best time to visit
Late summer and early autumn.
The weather can be changeable, with some summers decidedly hotter or wetter than others. Driest months are normally July and August. Winters are usually long and very cold, with snow lingering on higher ground until the spring.
The following table gives average monthly temperatures in degrees Centigrade for each of the routes.
A Short History
Major evidence of human settlement in France dates from around 25000BC, most noticeably traces of the Cro-Magnon people (as they became known) who lived from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic Age. Their cave paintings were discovered in Périgord, those in the Grotte de Lascaux being perhaps the most famous. The first Megalithic sites appeared in Brittany – a region peppered with dolmens and menhirs – around 5700BC. From about 1200BC several peoples – including the Celts from Britain and Ireland – came and settled in what is now known as France.
Gaul (as the Romans called it) became part of Julius Caesar's Roman Empire in the 1st century BC and remained so for 500 years until the Franks, a Germanic tribe led by Clovis I, conquered the fertile land between the Loire and the Somme in AD486. Clovis chose Paris (just another little town on the map at that time) as his capital at the turn of the 6th century. Roman Catholicism became the main religion, with Clovis declaring himself a Christian. Frankish society was subsequently converted, with the Franks (from whom ‘France’ derives) pushing southwards through Aquitaine as far as the Pyrénées.
In the mid-8th century the Carolingian dynasty came to power, with Pepin the Short being crowned king by the Pope. It was his successor, Charlemagne, who reunited the Frankish domains of Roman Gaul of old in 771. Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire by Pope Leo III in 800. In 843 this empire was divided between his grandsons into the West Frankish Kingdom, the Middle Frankish Empire and the East Frankish Kingdom. During the 9th century France was often attacked by Norsemen (from Scandinavia) who eventually settled in Normandy; two centuries later, in 1066, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, conquered England.
In 987, when the last Carolingian successor died, Hugues Capet was elected as the first of 13 kings of France by a select group of powerful provincial governors. This Capetian dynasty lasted until 1328, nine years before the start of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. However, large parts of France were under English rule from the second half of the 12th century, as a result of Eleanor of Aquitaine divorcing Louis VII of France and marrying Henry Plantagenet of Normandy, who soon became Henry II of England.
A significant battle during the Hundred Years' War took place in 1415 when Henry V of England defeated the French at Agincourt. The tides turned 14 years later when that celebrated leader of the French armies, Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), defeated the English at Orléans, leading to the coronation of Charles VII at Reims. Unfortunately Jeanne d'Arc fell into the hands of the Burgundians (allies of the English), and she was burnt at the stake by the English in 1431. News of her martyrdom spread, however, and inspired the French to fight on, resulting in the English finally being driven out of France in 1453.
Ossuaire du Vieux Bourg de Quimerc'h (Route 1)
The War of Religions between Protestants and Catholics in France started in 1562 and lasted for more than 30 years. During this war Henri III was assassinated and France saw her first Bourbon king, Henri IV, who helped bring about reconciliation and played an important role in the Edict of Nantes (which formalised the tolerance of Protestantism) in 1598.
France was ruled by just two kings for nine-tenths of the 17th century, Louis XIII and Louis XIV, the latter ascending the throne at the very early age of five and ruling for 72 years until 1715. Cardinals served both kings, Cardinal Richelieu for Louis XIII being the best known. France became a powerful state during this century (despite costly wars and deteriorating home economic conditions), mostly due to gaining territory overseas, thereby opening up profitable trading routes. However, in the Seven Years' War (1752–63) France lost most of her colonies to the English, and monarchy and parliament became increasingly divided. On 14 July 1789 the Bastille was stormed; the French Revolutionaries toppled the king, Louis XVI, and the Ancien Régime was destroyed. The unfortunate Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1793, the year after the monarchy was abolished and the First Republic established.
In 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte had himself crowned Emperor of France, 19 years after becoming an officer of the French army. His own armies conquered most of Europe by 1810, but two years later, hoping to extend his control of territory to Russia and beyond, his forces reached Moscow. A harsh winter forced them to retreat. A vast number of troops died on the long, cold return home, resulting in Napoleon Bonaparte's abdication in 1814. Twice exiled, he eventually died on the South Atlantic island of St Helena in 1821.
Ironically it was to be his nephew, Louis-Napoleon, who led a coup in 1851 and proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III after the establishment of the Second Republic. During the 1850s France prospered both economically and industrially, but the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was Napoleon III's downfall and he was defeated, resulting in a Third Republic. France also lost Alsace and most of Lorraine to Germany as a result of this war, only regaining them at the end of World War I (1914–18). A Fourth Republic began in 1946 after World War II (1939–45), and women were finally given the vote. The Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 under the leadership of President Charles De Gaulle who remained in power until 1969, the year before his death. François Mitterrand, leader of the Socialist Party, won the presidential election in 1981 and stayed in power for 14 years, thus becoming the longest-serving president
