The best MTB trails around Aiguillon

Perched on the heights of the Lot valley, the Capet windmill was built before 1324, but it is found dated 1870 on a stone at the entrance to the mill. Was it demolished and rebuilt? Possible! Be that as it may, this old building was once, as its name indicates, the mill of the lords of Montpezat whose successive castles were razed, except for the vital organ it represented and which constituted the survival of the inhabitants! The Château site where the mill is located was purchased by the municipality in February 1988 and the Capet lands in 1989. In 1998, the municipality decided to restore this mill which, after remaining for many years in a state of abandonment and ruin (only the shaft remained), finally had a new project for life.

top I recommend for pretty photos

very beautiful MTB ride, be careful in winter, quite a lot of mud

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!