At the sheep's paradise

The road to Brugnac was theoretically easier than the last one, as visible in the road profile."Just" riding downhill with some soft ups & downs on the way.

Parcours cycliste 1789359 - powered by Bikemap 

In reality, a small detail (which is not visible on the map) had a significant influence: temperature!
During the two days of this section, a heat wave in the region brought us temperatures around 38-39 degrees between 2pm-4pm. We were then forced to make a longer lunch break, with a nap, to save our strengths. Except that with a very warm wind in the afternoon, the "nap" turned out to be a sauna session...

Fortunately, on Tuesday, 20, we got a precious help. While we were trying to sleep in a big garden at Saint-Sylvestre, the owner gave us some fresh water before inviting us for a drink! After a nice discussion around a refreshing soda we were on the road again. A big thanks to Paul and Marie-France for those moments!

In the evening on the same day, we arrived at Brugnac where we stayed until Wednesday afternoon. We were hosted at my sister's (Yuki) and her boyfriend's (Séverin) place.

Séverin's family runs the Chaudron Magique, an organic farm in a breathtaking scenery, with really fluffy angora goats (see the first picture).

On Tuesday 21, after a good night's sleep, Séverin gave us a tour of the farm and its animals. In the evening, the whole team gathered at our host's place for a nice meal, full of discussions and jokes ;-).

From left to right: Yuki, Claire, Christiane, Martin, Tristan, Marie-Pascale and Séverin

After this highly gastronomic break (goat sausage, goat cheese, duck breasts, yummy!), we left for Bilbao on Wednesday, 22. A big thanks to Yuki and the Lavoyer family for their hospitality. We are taking your famous goat cheeses with us (they can be stored at room temperature for several months, or even years), to cheer us up during hard times.

 Small digression on animals: Sébastien has a habit of attracting all kind of insects. Here are some of the specimen that came across his way.

Praying mantis found in the Lot valley. It spent more than 40 km hanging on Sebastien's bike!

Giant grasshopper encountered in Brugnac...