Читать книгу Cycle Touring in France. Eight tours in Brittany, Picardy, Alsace, Auvergne/Languedoc, Provence, Dordogne/Lot, the Alps and the Pyrenees онлайн

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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.