Limonsin turned on the sunshine with not a cloud in the sky - this is the day we had been waiting for..... It could not have been better, bikes on board we drove about 18km to the lake, WOW looked amazing. Lac de Vassivière, one of France's largest artificial lakes, is a large man-made reservoir of about 10 square kilometres. There is a shared biking, walking trail mostly at the lakes edge around this very large man made lake. We hopped on our bikes and were off, gobsmacked at how beautiful this place was. The trail was incredible, the colours so vivid of winter leaves, green moss, the blue sky and the reflection in the lake. No wind at all. Every twist and turn there was another amazing view, we kept stopping to look and take photo's, enjoy and be in the moment. The trail was empty at this time of the year, 1st day of day light savings.  

We stopped to read a sign and realised that tour du france time trials have been here on the roads around this lake - mmmmm we are definetely not doing that pace hee hee.

We passed a walkers group and a couple of other people out walking their dogs, then we met a really interesting young woman with her dog & mule. They each had a pack, the dog carried 4kg's the mule 30kg and she had a backpack on but not very full. She told us she was just beginning her 5 month walk, a bit of a circuit and hoped to walk to Carcassone then the Pyrenees and back home, walking around 10km's per day. WOW is all we could say - makes our planned cycle trip seem easy listening to her. Her dog looked soo happy with his little pack on doing his bit, he walked along without being on a lead, leading his pack down the trail, as dogs love to do.

Rod was beside himself with happiness to be mountain biking through all the forest with the views of the lake - neither of us realised just how nice this would be and its only 18km's from where we are staying, just bring on the sunshine and we will be there.

We ended our cycle with a crepe & cider sitting in the sun just enjoying the view, I was amazed at all the ice cream sundaes and the size of them that were coming our and people were ordering, must be a french Sunday afternoon ritual. We headed home really please and satisfied with the wonderful afternoon cycle around the lake.