Book Description

Walter Judson Moore's third edition of Dordogne Valleys and Villages (in print and Kindle(R)) contains 15 cycling routes with comprehensive maps, elevation profiles, point to point and turn directions, and two town detail maps. These maps also have symbols indicating locations for restaurants, grocery stores and historically significant châteaux. Each route has a few color photographs to help visualize the ride. Readers of previous editions (along with the author) claim this guide increases the value of your vacation/holiday time. The guide's intent isto help anticipate what to expect, thus reducing travel stress, and manage costs. To augment your observations, the route sections include 60 histories, descriptions of villages, 198 photographs, along with some notes on the area's Neanderthal prehistory. The cycling routes are loops that end where they start. The concept suggested is to stay overnight in the same place for a week and get to know something more about that place and the people who live there. Cycling in this area of France may be considered challenging. Geographically, the large area east of Argentat is the Massif Central. The Dordogne Rivière headwaters are here. The river flows generally west, cutting through the limestone plateau. Glaciers from the recent ice age, the Dordogne and its tributaries, have created gorges with steep-sided, U-shaped cross-sections. The altitude change from the river up to the plateau often exceeds 300 meters with road ascents to the tops frequently exceeding more than 5%. DORDOGNE VALLEYS and VILLAGES will expand your understanding of a gracious culture and the delight of cycling in this exceptional region. These welcoming and friendly people live a history stretching back over 17,000 years. They seem incapable of serving anything but fine food and drink. Their dwellings, roads bridges and railways last hundreds of years. Flowers grow around many houses and highlight village squares. The pride practiced in agriculture is like artwork. Also available is a print-only companion guide, DORDOGNE VALLEYS and VILLAGES QUEUE SHEETS (Third Edition). It is 9" wide by 6" high and fits in many bicycle handlebar-mounted map cases. The detailed route segment directions, waypoints (which locates its longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds to the hundredth, and in digital format), elevation profiles, route maps and appropriate village detail maps for all 15 routes are included. The 11" by 8.5" print and Kindle(R) versions of the guidebook and INCLUDES ALL THE INFORMATION in the QUEUE SHEETS.