Haute Dordogne

Two regions, one week

The trick of this eight-day ride is that it doesn't just stay in the Dordogne. It uses the postcard half of the bargain — vineyards, fortified towns, the red Malbec country around Cahors — as a warm-up before tipping east into the Auvergne, where the hills stop rolling and start climbing, and the soundtrack switches from cicadas to cowbells. Two regions of rural France in one week, deliberately contrasted.

You start in Bergerac, transfer ninety minutes to Sarlat, and finish back along the Dordogne river. Sarlat itself is the kind of well-kept medieval town that earns its World Heritage status: narrow twisting alleyways, a square that fills with musicians and entertainers, and a first evening built around local cuisine and wine from the surrounding vineyards.

The shape of the ride

Day two sets the tone — 55 miles from Sarlat to Cahors with around 800 metres of climbing, through wooded hills with the occasional château glimpsed between the trees, then down into the fertile Lot Valley. Cahors itself is worth lingering in for the Malbec and the ancient bridge. From there the route follows the Célé river through the Parc Naturel de Quercy and overnights in Figeac, another medieval market town.

Then the terrain changes. As you head into the Auvergne the vineyards give way to rolling hills and cowbells around Velzic, and the centrepiece is the Pas de Peyrol — the climb up the Puy Mary at 1,588 metres, in the tracks of the 2024 Tour de France. The reward at the top is the chain of extinct volcanic cones laid out below. The route returns westward through the little-known Upper Dordogne before rejoining the Dordogne valley, with Rocamadour — the cliff-top pilgrimage town — giving up one of the more memorable descents of the week.

Lunches are Skedaddle picnics, taken at scenic spots along the way. Dinners lean traditional and regional, with the truffles of the Dordogne in the first half of the week and Cantal cheese once you're in its country.

Booking and what it suits

Saddle Skedaddle grade their trips 1 to 5 — check the trip notes for the specific grade, but the Puy Mary day tells you most of what you need to know about effort. Fit recreational road cyclists will be fine; this is not a beginner's week. Eight days, prices from £2,495 per person, with the meeting point in Bergerac and the transfer to Sarlat included on day one.

It's guided throughout, with carefully chosen accommodation and a clear steer toward regional cooking at dinner. Past riders are warm about the guides in particular — "Faultless service from start to finish," runs one review from West Yorkshire — and the operator is well-established in the UK road-cycling holiday market.

A good fit for cyclists who want a proper ride with one big climbing day, set against a week of rural France that takes in two distinct regions rather than only the famous one.