Flash! Crash! The storm began at 03:00 and seemed loud enough to make my teeth chatter. It went on for a good portion of the early morning with a flash of lightening every 5 seconds or so. As of 07:00 (the alarm was set wrong; we should have been up at 06:00) the rain is still coming down. Call us wimps, but we're going to hang tight and see if it eases off in the next couple of hours. We see no point in making the day miserable if we can help it. So for now I'm going back to sleep!
That's better. We awoke at 08:00 just as the rain ceased to fall. Have I ranted about French coffee yet? My grandad mentioned that they don't really have an equivalent to our Americano. However, I did see a "grande café" on the menu and thought this would be exactly what I was looking for. I'm not sure if my understanding of the word "grand" is off, but it seems to mean bloody small (see the picture below)!
We also seem to be eating through the cash we brought out with us and so we've set ourselves a daily budget of around €25. This is the first day aiming for this amount and we've already exceeded it. Camping so far has cost around €8 - €14 per night. Once meals have been added to this and a few cold drinks along the way we're already over budget. A bit of a rethink is required methinks.
Places that we visited today that are worthy of note are Montsoreau and Saumur, though we didn't see too much of the latter as we passed straight through. I think it's about time to say how much of a trooper Jwan has been so far on this trip. I've been doing nothing but cycle since I bought my bike last year, and particular in the last few months since the end of the academic year I have been sleeping, eating and cycling. As a result I'd say I've acclimatised well to this trip and the distances we're covering. For Jwan this trip, I'd say, is like jumping in at the deep end. It'd be unfair to expect from Jwan what I expect of myself. At the end of the day it is a holiday for us both to enjoy, and to do this we need to strike a good balance between cycling and sight-seeing / time off the bikes.
Anyway, this evening we've pitched on a campsite just a few miles outside of Saumur, and we did so in record time. As I sit here at a table outside, the Loire next to the campsite and the sun slowly dissolving away, Jwan is sitting beside me putting together an itinerary for tomorrow. That's it for today :-) Over and out.
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