The end of the Dordogne & Lot tour

Monday 20th – Tuesday 21st May

Monday is a free day that allows the tourees to explore the region at their leisure. Eight of the group hired taxis that took them the 20 minute journey to the caves. The caves feature an underground train that takes you to the innermost caverns, where a walk is followed by a lift to get out. Another group ventured to the railway station at Souilliac for a 40 minute journey to the much larger town of Cahors. The remaining tourees stayed in Souillac undertook a variety of adventures, including visiting the abbey, touring the distillery where they make a prune based liqueur flavoured with walnut and walks along the Dordogne. Most of us also made a visit to Lidl for components for our packed lunches for Friday.

Dinner at 19:00 was accompanied by a man and his electronic organ…

An early Tuesday morning. Alarm at 05:20, packing, bag outside the hotel room ready for portage down to the coach, breakfast at 06:00.

At 06:45 our coach collected us and delivered us to the Souillac railway station. The Toulouse to Paris train only stops for two minutes, and with all of us with reserved tickets in the middle of coach one it required rigorous planning to ensure a smooth, safe, timely embarcation. Fortunately, the train station had a plan of the train so I knew that coach one would be at the front of the train and I also knew the direction of travel. We lined up in three separate queues where I guestimated where the first three carriage doors would be, quickest at the front, slowest at the back. I managed to push the last passenger on with 20 seconds to spare. [I love it when a plan comes to fruition.]

We arrived on time in Paris, where the coach was waiting for us for a 30 minute drive across Paris to Gare du Nord.