Flow Vélo 12 : Teas and Trees (extract)

La Flow Vélo from St.Pardoux-la-Rivière to Thiviers

In July 2020 we spent a few days camping in St.Pardoux-la-Rivière in the Dordogne. From our base camp, we cycled in a different direction each day and explored the countryside. This was our first contact with La Flow Vélo.

On our last day of the holiday, intrigued by the signs, we decided to follow them. I blogged about this camping trip as a part of the series ‘Abandoned Parent Training’. Below, you’ll find an extract of my blog post ‘Teas and Trees’, in which I mention the ‘breakaway’ trip from the Flow Vélo to visit the touristy town of Brantôme, and also the section from St.Pardoux to Thiviers, the eastern end-point of La Flow Vélo.

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A visit to the upper Dronne isn’t complete without a visit to Brantôme – or so the friendly locals in the village bar at St.Pardoux-la-Rivière told us.

It didn’t look too far, so we decided to follow their advice and cycle there the next day, taking only small roads, as usual. An idyllic lane ran parallel to the river on the far side of the main road. It was perfect cycling territory and we even took chances on some tracks.

Brantôme, like many picturesque towns in summer, was crowded with tourists. Despite this, it was worth the visit.

It’s the kind of place you want to visit on a crisp, winter’s day. In fact I’ll definitely be going back this winter because I found treasure there.

My treasure was a little shop called BookStop. It sells English books, holds art exhibitions, hosts visiting authors and even an English writing group.

Best of all, given the morning’s cycling, it has a tea room. The owner, Howard, was serving tea in its little garden overlooking the river. Not any old tea: cream tea! Along with fish’n’chips, cream teas are one of the things I miss about the UK.

Howard’s cream tea was delicious and I loved the British feel of the garden. If you’re in Brantôme, call into 19 rue Victor Hugo and say ‘Hi’ to Howard.

To vary the return cycle ride from Brantôme, we decided to take a series of lanes a little higher in the hills. Our large-scale map didn’t show all the roads but, luckily, my partner navigates with the sun and the lie of the land, (meaning that when the sun sets it’s night and that downhill is towards the river) so I knew we’d be fine.

It was hilly but we were here to train. And then it was even hillier and the sun didn’t seem to be in the right place. There was a distinct lack of roads heading in the direction we wanted. The tracks didn’t lead anywhere either.

At last, we arrived at the campsite, exhausted, with 56.1km on our counter.

The highlight of the following day again revolved around refreshment.

It was hot so we headed along the ‘Flow Vélo’ cycle track to Thiviers, stopping for lunch at St.Jean-de-Côle along the way.

We found the former railway line rather monotonous because there weren’t many unexpected sights. The end of the line, after 22km of gentle cycling, was the hilltop village of Thiviers, reached by a road. It was hot after the shady part and I found the village slightly disappointing.

But St.Jean-de-Côle was stunning! With its rustic buildings, car-free centre (almost), narrow alleys and roman bridge, it’s a village languishing in a time warp.

We were charmed by the setting of a restaurant called Le Temps des Mets and decided to treat ourselves to lunch there. The tables are on the village green under plane trees and the quality of food was excellent.

We’ll definitely be coming back to St.Jean-de-Côle.