La Voie Verte et Le Château des Izards

I have a bike!! Well temporarily anyways!

Last week we found out Birgitta had a bike that she didn’t actually use as it was too cold, so she has kindly lent it to me until it warms up/she wants to use it which is great for me!

Perigueux has a path that follows the river through town and on to other towns for about 15km called the Voie Verte. I’ve only actually been on it twice since I have been here, once on the bike ride with Karine and once when I was showing William around. I have been meaning to do some more walks along it but I kind of don’t like walking as I find it too slow by myself… so now that I have Birgitta’s bike I was quick to get out and go for a ride!

I cycled along the river and came across one of the Dordogne’s many castles – Le château des Izards, A cute little Castle up on the hill over looking the River and Perigueux. The river is also dotted with lots of cute little bridges and quite a bit of wildlife, including these adorable ducks!

I’m looking forwards to more cycles along the river and the handiness of being able to cycle to work now!

We also joined the gym this week so we are on a big exercise kick!

Château des Izards

Château des Izards

Views of Perigueux

Château des Izards

Château des Izards

L’Isle

Voie Verte

Château des Izards

Château des Izards

Bike rides and Brantôme

We went for a cycle today. Now, myself and the other assistant thought this was going to be a leisurely, see whats about kind of cycle. We were wrong. We cycled for an hour and a half! Fortunately it was all flat and still very beautiful, even if we were dying trying to get over the bridges and lost Eva (the lady who is looking after us’ daughter). Unfortunately I forgot that because they drive on the other side of the road here, that means they also cycle on the other side in parks and things… So I almost knocked down some cyclists, BUT everyone was unharmed, they just weren’t too pleased! Too exercised related for pictures i’m afraid!

After a huge lunch (sooo many courses here?!) and a siesta (amazing), we headed to a town nearby called Brantôme. It was absolutely stunning! Its a small town on the river, with many shops and restaurants built into the rocks and the inside of them is like a cave. Karine explained that tourists love this village and it is always full of English people, and she was right, you could hear lots of English people in the streets. I’ll leave you some pictures to show how beautiful it is!

We came home and had another crazy course filled dinner, and then ate sweet chestnuts, which look awfully similar to conkers, they also thought I was crazy when I explained we tie conkers to strings and hit them off each other – I thought this was normal?

Tomorrow we are going to have a dander round Perigueux and then look at our potential house tomorrow evening!