La Lozérienne Gravel

La Lozérienne Gravel is the gravel day of La Lozérienne, a spring bike festival in Lozère that began as a road and mountain-bike event and opened up to gravel a few years ago. It is run by LVO Organisation with partner associations and a large crew of volunteers, and it forms one stage of the Gravel'Tour, a season-long series of French gravel events.

The start is La Canourgue, nicknamed the little Venice of Lozère for the canals that thread through its old centre of medieval and Renaissance houses, with a clock tower and a 13th-century collegiate church. From the Lot valley the routes climb onto the Causse de Sauveterre, a limestone plateau of wide, thinly populated country, past hamlets tucked into the folds of the causse and through deep green forest. The longer loop reaches the Point Sublime, a viewpoint high above the Gorges du Tarn.

The mix is quiet back roads, dirt tracks and playful singletrack, and the mood is that of a festival weekend: ride it with friends at your own pace, or take on the longer loop against the clock. The local tourism office backs the event as a way to show visitors a wide, quiet corner of France, and promises them a real change of scenery.