The best road cycling routes around Sembas

This beautiful Voie Verte created in 2008, 2009 and 2010, connects Villeneuve-sur-Lot to Casseneuil. It follows the footprint of two old railway lines on the outskirts of Villeneuve-sur-Lot and at the entrance to Casseneuil. Between these two sections is a pretty path that was created along the stream « La Masse ».

This beautiful Voie Verte, created in 2008, 2009 and 2010, connects Villeneuve-sur-Lot to Casseneuil. It uses the footprint of two old railway lines on the outskirts of Villeneuve-sur-Lot and at the entrance to Casseneuil. Between these two sections, it is a pretty path that was created along the "La Masse" stream.

The Tour du Roy of Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, located in the Lot-et-Garonne department, is an old urban seigneurial fortified house built between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. Listed as a Historical Monument since 1925, it represents the only surviving vestige of the town's medieval fortifications. Despite its name "Tour du Roy", it initially belonged to a local lord and not to the crown. Local legend sometimes erroneously attributes it to Richard the Lionheart.

The architecture of Villeneuve-sur-Lot tells its story as a 13th-century river bastide, built for trade and defense. Its geometric checkerboard plan is organized around a central hub and opens onto the river. The checkerboard plan: Straight streets, typical of medieval bastides. Place Lafayette: Central square bordered by covered arcades (the cornières). The watchtowers: Fortified gates of Paris and Pujols in brick and stone. The Romanesque-Byzantine style: Used for the Sainte-Catherine church with its 55-meter high bell tower. The half-timbered facades: Medieval houses with timber framing and overhangs. The Pont des Cieutat: 13th-century structure with asymmetrical stone arches.

The Saint-Sylvestre Church depends on the Saint-Jacques-en-Vallée-du-Lot community, attached to the diocese of Agen. The current village church was built between 1863 and 1865. It houses, among other things, a beautiful 14th-century polychrome wooden statue representing Saint Peter.

« Lou Mouli del Castel » « Lou Mouli del Castel », as the elders of Montpezat familiarly called it, raises its tall stature on the rocky spur located west of the village, from where one overlooks the beautiful Lot valley. Writings in P. CHAPLAIS' book « The war of Saint SARDOS » tell us that the Capet windmill was built before 1324, but we find it 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 site of the Castle where the mill is located was purchased by the commune in February 1988 and the Capet lands in 1989. In 1998, the municipality decided to restore this mill which, after having remained for many years in a state of abandonment and ruin (only the shaft remained), finally had a new life project. Thus, on a beautiful spring morning in 2005, our mill regained its wings. There are 3 mills in the commune, only this one is communal, the other two are private. This restoration would not have been possible without the determination of the elected officials of the time and without the various grants that were awarded. Thanks to them, we today have the most beautiful mill in the... village.

Great tunnel. Don't forget your light, it could get dark.

An amazing little stop in a gorgeous sleepy town on top of a hill. The hill on which Clermont-Dessous is built dominates the Garonne and commands the right bank near Port-Sainte-Marie . The hill must have been fortified as early as the 11th century. The castle protects the weakest part of the hill, near the neighboring hills; it is cut off from the village by a ditch. The parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste was also the castle chapel and participated in the defense of the castle. In 1221 the castle was besieged unsuccessfully by Amaury de Montfort. The castrum is mentioned for the first time in the Saisimentum of 1271. It depends on the "baylie" of Port-Sainte-Marie; the castle played an important role during the Hundred Years' War  ; its keep must date from the 13th century  or the beginning of the 14th century. In 1437, the "routiers" having seized the castle, it was necessary to raise a contribution to buy it back. The castle and the lordship belonged successively to the families: Lamothe, lords of Bruch, in the 12th century; de Pardaillan de Gondrin - old noble Gascon family which in the 16th century gave  a governor of Agenais and Condomois , then in the following century the first Duke of Antin , legitimized son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan  ; in the 14th century , Ferrand; Malvezin de Lassale in 1425, and the Benquet, Péticlo, Monorgon, Rémefa, Yzalguier in 1451 (or 1490?), of Narbonne-Lara from 1579; Chapt de Rastignac in 1705. Pierre II de Secondat (1490-1560) was lord of Clermont-Dessous and Roques, then from 1564 his son, Jean II de Secondat (1515-1599), lord of Montesquieu and Roquefort . Co-lord Jacques Yzalguier (or d'Isalguier), lord, baron of Clermont-Dessous and Clermont-le-Fort , married theOctober 20, 1526one of his daughters, Antoinette, to Blaise de Monluc , at the church of Clermont. The dwelling was remodeled in the 15th century  by a co-lord, perhaps Lérôme-Patrice de Monorgon, co-lord who died in 1506, or Jacques Yzalguier. A second main building was built to the north, at the end of the 15th century  or at the beginning of the 16th century ; the facades of old houses, notably in the village of Saint-Médard and the hamlet of Bessou, have retained mullioned windows which could date from this period. Maximilien de Narbonne, lord of Talairan , Combebonnet and Montlau, married in 1579 Isabeau de Cours, daughter of Jean de Cours, lady of Clermont near Port-Sainte-Marie; their son was Jean de Narbonne, lord of Clermont, Combebonnet and Montlau, himself married to Anne Bouchard d'Aubeterre , from whom Louis de Narbonne-Lara (1635-1705), known as "the count of Clermont", lord of Montfort and Combebonnet who had from his marriage with Madeleine de Souillac d'Azerac, Marie-Anne de Narbonne-Lara, lady of Clermont and Combebonnet, married in 1701 with Jacques-Gabriel Chapt, count of Rastignac, baron of Luzech, received "page of the King in his great stable" in 1693, brother of Louis-Jacques Chapt de Rastignac , archbishop of Tours . In 1705 the lordship entered the Chapt de Rastignac family; Jacques-Gabriel Chapt de Rastignac died without issue in 1755, his wife had died in 1703. By his will of 1732, Chapt de Rastignac had given the usufruct of all his property to his sister Jeanne, Marquise de Gaubert, and appointed Pierre Louis Chapt de Rastignac, Count of Puyguilhem, his universal heir. Zénaïde-Sabine de Chapt de Rastignac, Marquise de Rastignac (great-granddaughter of Pierre Louis Chapt, and only daughter of Pierre Jean Julie Chapt , Marquis de Rastignac, and Françoise Charlotte Ernestine de La Rochefoucaud - Doudeauville), married in 1817 to François XIV Marie Auguste Émilien de La Rochefoucauld, Prince of Marcillac then Duke of Liancourt. His portrait is kept at the castle of La Rochefoucauld. In 1818 the lord was the Marquis Pierre Jean Chapt de Rastignac, deputy of Lot and peer of France, who had the Château de Rastignac built, a neo-Palladian style residence which would have served as a model for the American presidential palace. The castle, which fell into ruin in the 19th century  and was then partially restored, is listed as a historic monument .June 20, 1950.