france

Bike date!

Jenny Harlen

27 Mar 2025 — 1 min read

France, La Roque-Gageac, Dordogne

Selma and I are off on an adventure together - at long last!
This is our van spot for the week: grass, river, wifi, hot showers, and even a little campground café for when the sun comes out
And medieval castles every which way

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The ride took us to Domme! A bastide town on the other side of the river and up a very big hill. Coffee! Church with a very tall facade. Charming book shop. And a crêpe! The best kind, with caramel and salt and sugar.

Chinon: so many stories!

I biked up to Chinon in the sun, stopped for a quiet café on the square, parked up Selma the bike by the drawbridge, and strolled on in. Meh…not such a grand chateau as the others here on the Loire, I thought, just a few crumbled towers on a

The shopping street in a cave

This came as a complete surprise, Selma the e-bike and I were just biking along the river back to the van and took a back way because the road along the Loire was a bit narrow. And suddenly found ourselves ducking through arches and tunnels, our path took us through

Trogdo villages

Selma and I are out exploring, and look what we found! Lots of these houses, shops, garages dug into the cliffside. They call them trogdolyte dwellings, for some reason that makes me think of Shrek. Actually it just means houses in caves. We’ve just stopped at a troglodyte cafe

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud

Mission accomplished! I found the three powerbrokers of the 12th century! Eleonore, Henry, Richard. Plus a daughter-in-law, the wife of John. Eleonore of Aquitaine was one hell of a woman, she was married to two kings, father of three kings, and her daughters were married into crowns of their own.

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Chinon: so many stories!

The shopping street in a cave

Trogdo villages

Eleonore and co at Fontevraud