Le Petite Tour de France

Chris' dad was in France for about two weeks doing a bike trip around central, France so after an epic Spanish World Cup win the three amigos made our way into the land of fine wine and incredible mustaches.
I think Paris must have skewed my judgment a little too much because the people of small town, central France are a very nice and hospitable group, contrary to what I had prepared myself for.

Chris and his noble steed

After a brief stopover in Toulouse we arrived in Eyzies where the first 30km leg of the grueling Le Petite Tour de (central) France was to begin.
Grueling is a little bit of an overstatement, it was basically a holiday from our holiday. We slept for more than 5 hours a night, slept in comfy beds that didn't run the risk of bed bug infestation, ate amazing meals and occasionally rode our bikes. It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating experience to say the least. I'm not sure how many geese were forced to give up their lives in order to sustain our appetites but judging by our burger patty sized slabs of foie gras I'd say we were responsible for at least five per meal...each.  It's sad for the goose population but really they just shouldn't have made their liver so damn tasty.
Eyzies is a beautiful single street little town built into the same cliff face as our cave dwelling Troglodyte ancestors lived in thousands of years ago.  We soon found out that the entire area was pockmarked with ancient caves dating as far back as the Cro-magnon man, our earliest modern ancestor upwards of 35,000 years ago (Lytle I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your ancestors were not from the shire, you're a Trog through and through).

At the train station we were met by Robert, who gave us our bikes and some paniers for our gear.  He kindly drew us up a route to Beynac-de-Cazenac where we were to meet Chris' dad.  The problem lay with Roberts perception of our health and fitness routines in the last 2 months. The route he opted to send us on stuck to the small country roads, passing farm fields, and winding up and down beautiful rolling hills...every rolling hill, we basically cut directly across the grain. By the time we reached Chris' dad we were exhausted, yet only half way.  We did make it in the end thanks to Ron's encouraging 'were pretty much there, only another kilometer' and 'oh ya, its just at the bottom of the hill, we're basically there, just another 5 minutes.'

Currently holding the yellow jersey

The area really is ideal biking territory; though; beautiful countryside, farm fields and gently rolling hills that aren't too strenuous (relatively speaking). But it must have been one hell of a battle roy-al in the area back in the day because litterally every hill was crowned with either a huge castle or chateaux, many of them with the original families still living in them.

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We finished up back where we started in Eyzies and after a solid 120km (somthing Lance does in an afternoon) we were on our way out of goose country.