Notre Tour de France #18 (22 mi)

One of the tools that is accompanying us on our trip is a bike chain wear indicator / gauge. After using it last night, it tells me I need to replace my chain despite being not much more than a couple of months old. The mistake I made last time was letting the chain stretch by a stupid amount, necessitating the replacement of both my bike's cassette and two chain rings - all at quite a considerable cost. I'm determined not to let that happen this time. Jwan's chain on the other hand is still considered healthy, according to the trusty tool.

After waking up a little later than usual (recuperating our strength after yesterday), we nipped down in to the village to make an important visit to the Boulangerie and the Café. Petit Dejuner is the most important meal of the day, and don't you forget it. As we were sat in the café drinking our coffee and eating our pain au chocolat, the heavens opened and there were a couple of claps of thunder. Our plans to go to Le Blanc were temporarily postponed to allow the worst of the weather to pass. This village we are staying in is called Tournon Saint Martin, which Jwan has so lovingly nicknamed "Thorn In Saint Martin's Butt".

Once we were presented with a momentary window of weather opportunity, off we went. It was quite a bit further than we had anticipated to Le Blanc at about 10 miles. It may not sound that much, but to be cycling upwards of 20 miles on a rest day is quite a lot.

The village offered us the opportunity to purchase more coffee, a replacement chain for my bike (hoorah!), something greasy for lunch (something we haven't yet done), a nice dessert and some provisions at a supermarket.

The rain has been on and off all day, coming in shorts bursts before drying up, though we spent most of the afternoon sat in the "games room" (a.k.a the dry sanctuary) of the campsite, watching the lightening flash and the rain come bouncing down as a storm passed over. I can't remember the forecast too well, but I think this should be the last of the nastiness for the next few days.

Once the sky cleared up a little at around 18:30, we went out to the village in search of food. Jwan has been expressing his desire for pizza all day, and as luck would have it we crossed the bridge (less than a minute's cycle from the campsite), and there sat a mobile pizza van. It looks like the God(s) were on our side today. This was chased down with some Panaché purchased from Netto (yes, Netto!), reminding me of the summers spent holidaying in France as a teenager. Good times indeed, as are these.

Tomorrow we shall be hopefully be heading south towards Limoges, where I'll hopefully be able to find some Wifi to publish the blog posts from the last couple of days.