Dordogne Valleys and Villages

This, my third cycling guidebook, contains 15 (12 with alternates) new and original routes with comprehensive maps, elevation profiles, point to point and turn directions, restaurants and orientation features plus detail maps for the towns with extra complexity. Color maps for each route have photographs that help visualize the ride.I created the guide to increases the value of any cyclist's precious vacation or holiday time. The guide helps you anticipate what to expect, thus reducing...
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This, my third cycling guidebook, contains 15 (12 with alternates) new and original routes with comprehensive maps, elevation profiles, point to point and turn directions, restaurants and orientation features plus detail maps for the towns with extra complexity. Color maps for each route have photographs that help visualize the ride.I created the guide to increases the value of any cyclist's precious vacation or holiday time. The guide helps you anticipate what to expect, thus reducing travel stress, and manage costs. To augment your observations, the route sections include 61 histories and descriptions of villages and prehistory.As with the first two guides, bicycling routes are all loops that end where they start. The tested concepts are to stay overnight in one place for a week and get to know something more about that place and the people who live there. Cycling in this area of France may be considered strenuous. Geographically, the large area east of Argentat is the Massif Central. The Dordogne Rivière's headwaters are here. The river flows generally west, cutting through the limestone plateau. Glaciers from the most recent ice age, the Dordogne and its tributaries have created gorges with, a U-shaped cross-section having steep sides. The altitude change from the river up to the plateau often exceeds 300 meters with road ascents to the tops frequently more than 6%.DORDOGNE VALLEYS AND VILLAGES expands your understanding of a gracious culture and the delight of bicycling in this exceptional region. These welcoming and friendly people live a history stretching back over 17,000 years. They seem incapable of serving anything but fine food and drink. Their dwellings, roads, bridges and railways last hundreds of years. Flowers grow around many houses and highlight village squares. The pride practiced in agriculture is like artwork.A cyclist appreciates these traits better than most who examine the world. On a bicycle you pedal up and coast down hills, on less traveled roads and through villages. You will engage small slopes, big hills, narrow roads, winding lanes, hamlets and bustling market towns.Also available is a companion guide, DORDOGNE VALLEYS AND VILLAGES QUEUE SHEETS. It is 9" wide by 6" high and fits in many bicycle handlebar-mounted map cases. The detailed segment directions, elevation profiles, individual maps and appropriate village detail maps for all 15 routes plus 12 alternate routes make this guide useful on a day's ride.