Circuit De Monts Du Cantal

[curlylegend]

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">Anybody charging south next season might consider a days detour well worth it if they follow the Circuit de Monts du Cantal.  

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">It's not killer Alpine pass storming but a damn good day out.  Roads are good, the circuit is fairly well signposted, and there are plenty of places to stop and refuel.....man and machine....

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;"> 

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">For sheer excitement though, take a detour at Pierrefort and head for Mur-de-Barrez then find and follow the D13 to Aurillac.  You will recognise the start of this road as it has a big warning sign in elegant French.  Translated, it reads, "This road is very narrow, irregularly surfaced, twisty and downright dangerous, proceed at your Peril !"

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">Now who can resist a challenge like that ?

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">It is narrow and it is twisty and the camber is not at all what you might expect. It also runs pretty steeply downhill for the best part of 18km, through a dense forest. At the bottom you'll cross a bridge just wide enough for a couple of donkeys and to house a Troll, I'm sure. Then it's same again but uphill this time.

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">I used 2nd and 3rd gear nearly all the way.  A real case of squirt and squeeze.

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;"> 

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">This is where a bike like a TDM comes into it's own, there's not many bikes that could be equally comfortable blasting down the A20, then cruising the Circuit de Monts du Cantal and then a bit of white-knuckle helter-skelter stuff.

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;"> 

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">Bloody good bike !

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;"> 

<p style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;margin-left:0px;text-align:left;">Link....<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.cantal.fr/_fichiers/voscotes/1370932122_Circuit-des-Monts-du-Cantal---DptCANTAL-A3-150dpi.pdf" title="External link">http://www.cantal.fr...L-A3-150dpi.pdf</a>

[curlylegend]

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[peter-may]

Nice pics Curly. I can vouche for the riding round those parts. Two years ago we returned that way from Millau (total rain and fog washout).

[dapleb]

And they make a noice cheese

[curlylegend]

Nice pics Curly. I can vouche for the riding round those parts. Two years ago we returned that way from Millau (total rain and fog washout).

 

 

And they make a noice cheese

 

Shame about the weather, Picard, it truly is a lovely place......weather permitting.

 

And indeed, dapleb, the local cheeses are famous.  I stopped at a fromagerie on the roadside and got the whole rundown about Cantal cheese, how ancient it is, what make of cows they use, what they are fed on etc.  The farmer and his wife seemed pleased that someone was not only buying some cheeses from them but was actually interested in the whole process. Curiously, I had less difficulty understanding their accented French than I do at home ??   Maybe because they speak slower in the Cantal countryside ?

But if anyone is going to buy some cheese, f*ck all that Elf and Safety crap, go for a bit of Cantal Vieux Fermier made from unpasteurised milk.  It probably won't kill you, but if it does, you'll die having tasted something worthwhile.