The best MTB trails around Saint-Léger

A literary monument – albeit one that seems rather bizarre in the context of the story – has been erected by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes to the windmills with which our ancestors harnessed the energy of the wind centuries ago to move the large and heavy millstones: In one episode, his tragic novel hero Don Quixote, the “knight of the sorrowful countenance”, wants to defeat them in a duel, believing that he is fighting against giants with four arms.

Montgaillard-en-Albret, perched on the hills of Lot-et-Garonne, is a small village that exudes authenticity. Its quiet streets and medieval heritage make it a pleasant stopover for cyclists seeking rural charm.

Beautiful and particular walled city, that is, completely surrounded by fortified walls.

Founded in 1284, Vianne is one of the rare bastides in the Southwest to have preserved its system of fortifications: its ramparts, gates and towers, practically intact today, have resisted the assault of time and men to constitute one of the most authentic testimonies of the medieval past of Albret. To see: the Vianne garden of Gontaut-Biron (in search of the mystery of the She-Wolf of Vianne), the atypical Romanesque church, the ramparts of the bastide along the Baïse river.

The history of Clairac is inseparable from that of its Benedictine abbey, which was internationally renowned in the Middle Ages. The abbey, as well as the town which was formed around its walls, reached their peak in the 12th and 13th centuries. There were then 120 monks who worked both in the fields and as copyists of manuscripts. The abbot of Clairac was also the lord of the village and commanded two bastides, five priories and around fifty parishes. The monks also owned two mills on the Lot. The income generated by the abbey was then considerable. But the most important heritage is unexpected: the plum tree of Damascus, brought back from the crusades, was in fact "enté", that is to say grafted, by them for the 1st time. They also discovered the sun-drying process, inventing the Ente plum and the Agen prune in one fell swoop!

Wikipedia: The first mention of Buzet is in a charter of Bernard Guilhem, Count of Gascony from 997 to 1009, which confirms the gift made by his father to the Abbey of Saint-Sever of three churches and a forest in the jurisdiction of Buzet. But it is not then a question of the castle. This appeared for the first time when Bernard Guilhem's successor, Sancho de Gascogne (1009-1032), offered the monks of Saint-Pierre de Condom his "domain (curtem) named Buzet and the castle (castellum) that he himself had fortified in it, with all his farms, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures, wet and dry, cultivated and uncultivated (…)1”. As the text specifies, the Count of Gascony had himself ordered the fortification of a previous residence, which means that he can be considered without too much doubt as the founder of the Château de Buzet.

Many trails are located around the castle of Buzet .

Like many small towns located along the Lot River, Clairac has its own beach. But it also boasts some of the region's most beautiful half-timbered houses, as well as the Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens church, known for its remarkable maître d'hôtel.