Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and the Cliff Road

Saint-Cirq-Lapopie was the reason for the ride, and it didn’t disappoint. I stopped first at the viewpoint above the village to look out over the Lot valley, its pale cliffs standing out against the wooded hills, then again for the village itself: the church tower and a jumble of stone houses perched on the edge of the drop, set off by the reds and golds of autumn.

Even under a grey sky it lived up to its billing as one of the most beautiful villages in France, and my Strava comment said it in one word: stunning. Then came the reward for the climbing, a quick drop down to the bridge over the Lot below the village and the turn for home, downstream along the valley, past a road painted with the department’s slogan, Le Lot, bien plus qu’une étape.

At Bouziès I made a short detour, crossing the Lot on the old suspension bridge to the village and its church, the Église Saint-Léger, stopping for a photo and then riding back over to pick up my route. From there the road became the highlight of the second half: cut into the foot of the cliffs, with a low stone wall on one side and the rock face hanging over the other.

The Lot was perfectly still that morning, mirroring the cliffs and the troglodytic Château des Anglais, a medieval refuge built into the rock face and best seen from the bridge. After all the climbing on the way out, the way home was almost flat, so I settled into a steady rhythm and let the scenery do the work.

Downstream the valley opens out through Saint-Géry, Vers, Lamagdelaine and Laroque-des-Arcs, now part of Bellefont-La Rauze, past its old stone tower and long lines of plane trees dropping their leaves onto the verges.

Then it was back into Cahors, past the big black-and-white mural near the finish, with the afternoon still free for a trip out to the caves at the Gouffre de Padirac. Sixty-one kilometres, one Cat 3 climb, a hilltop village and a cliff road, all before lunch – grey skies or not, a stunning morning in the Lot.