Notre Tour de France #19 (85 mi)

It looks like we weren't finished with the nasty weather after all as we had to try and sleep through another brutal storm. The rain didn't leak through the top of the tent and drip on my face this time, though the floor of the tent was a little wet this morning, despite being sat on a groundsheet.

The storm seemed to have left behind a residual atmosphere, or perhaps it was down to the grim weather, fatigue and / or lack of caffeine. In any case, there wasn't much conversation between us this morning and I used this opportunity to stew in my own thoughts - something I like to do on occasion and especially when cycling.

The majority of the villages we have been passing through today have definitely been something to marvel at. We've had spectacular views across valleys, rivers, churches and castles. Normally we pass through villages that are pleasant enough, but lay dormant with not much more to offer but a few village flowers. Still better than many of the villages of Britain.

At around lunch time we arrived in Montorillon, which seemed popular with tourists - especially the English.  Here we browsed the local market and grabbed something to eat before our onward journey toward Limoges. Before I forget, the names of the other nice villages are Saint-Savin and Angles-sur-l'Anglin, both south of our previous home for two nights in "Thorn in Saint Martin's Butt".

Between such villages the journey has been fairly tough, returning to the rollercoaster style roads we came across when heading in west from the coast. There was a quote I remember coming across, though I can't remember who said it: "Hills don't get any easier; you just go faster". From having spent the last few days staring at Jwan's backside (I cycle behind him), he's definitely toned up, and when we reach the trough of a hill and start an ascent, I can see his pistons pumping away like there's no tomorrow.

Around an hour or so before reaching our destination, the rain God treat us to a downpour. A horrible, relentless, cold downpour complete with thunder and lightening. We both got absolutely drenched and it was a horrible way to end a journey that was tough enough already. After asking at a supermarket where I got something to eat for tea, we were directed 5km or so towards a campsite, where we have now pitched the tent. In the rain. It's still raining. I don't like rain. Hopefully though, and I'm getting a bit of déjà vu here, this should be the last of the rubbish weather. He says.

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.

Notre Tour de France #17 (80 mi)

As planned yesterday, we set out east from Secondigny towards Le Blanc. Do you remember me saying the campsite we were staying at wanted €3 for an hour of Internet on one device? Well we returned to the same café we frequented yesterday in Parthenay where it cost us €2.40 for two coffees (each with a little sweet), 2 glasses of water, Internet access on our three devices and free charging of these as well. That's more like it...

Onwards from this town, the roads seemed to level out considerably which made for mostly pleasant riding. Just as well really since today has been a long day. There's not too much to say about the places we passed through. One or two villages had pretty bridges and some nice buildings. We stopped once for coffee (and chocolate, but don't tell anyone), once for lunch as we passed a supermarket, and once again for a cheeky ice cream. Please don't think of us as greedy; we've burnt somewhere over 2000 calories each today. It's practically mandatory that we eat ice cream, especially with the weather today keeping at somewhere around 33 degrees. It did actually rain on us as well, for all of 20 seconds. Just how it should be, really.

Around 10 miles before reaching Le Blanc, we saw signs for camping just off the main road and thought it'd be worth investigating. Our curiosity paid off, and we're now pitched on a municipal campsite for a total cost of €6 per night - and the toilets are provided with toilet paper. Bliss. Before turning in for the night, we had a nosey around the town, stopped off for a coffee at one bar, and another where Jwan treated himself to a beer. Because it's a Monday and opening hours are a little backwards, we've not been able to source any supplies for our evening meal. I'm rather hungry, but I guess I'll just go and eat what is left of the morning cereal (without milk) utill we find some breakfast tomorrow morning on the way to Le Blanc.

Notre Tour de France #16 (25 mi)

After another sleep in (08:00), we set off East towards Parthenay to go exploring. The dreaded Sunday and Monday have come around again - the two days when everything in France seems to come to a standstill and every resident disappears off the face of the Earth.

In another news, I think I have resolved the clacking noise on my bike. I removed the pedal to set about inspecting the bearings, and it came off the crank fairly easily. After regreasing the threads and refitting it, the noise seems to have disappeared. At least it didn't reveal itself in the 10 miles over to Parthenay.

Once here, one of the other English tourists described the place quite aptly by singing The Specials with "This town (aah, aah) is getting like a ghost town". But what a beautiful ghost town it is. As we passed through the deserted streets of the town centre, we stumbled upon a clock tower. A passageway forking off to the left of it, I thought, would take us through to someone's back garden or something, but it opened out into some spectacular views across the town.

In the centre of the town there is a citadel, surrounded by a rather grand wall. Historically, the religious [nuts] which held power and the politicians would live within these walls, separated from those of a lower class. Beautiful scenery can be observed from all angles from this vantage point, and the buildings contained within are themselves something to marvel at. Although we didn't know a thing about this place before visiting today, I think Jwan deserves some brownie points for picking this place out and suggesting we head over here rather than back towards the coast.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is the hedgehogs. With all the cycling we've been doing and especially in the last couple of days, I'm not sure whether we've been coming across more monuments dedicated to Jesus, or more squished hedgehogs in the road. We've seen one live hedgehog at a campsite in the first week, but tens and tens of dead ones on the roads. It's probably best to point out that all the Jeebuses we've been seeing are also dead. Thanks for dying for our sins Jeebus. I love you, Jeebus...

We had a bit of a campsite conundrum today. The one we stayed at last night is relatively expensive at €14 a night, boasting a number of facilities we're not going to use such as a water slide, bike rentals, a games room and so on. So on the way back from lovely Parthenay we kept an eye out for alternaives. Tomorrow we've decided to head east towards a nice looking place called Le Blanc, so any site found would take us a little closer to our destination. The first one, camping à la ferme, was in a nice little location and would have cost us €11.10 for the night. The second one we found was a municipal site and would have cost €8.20. We decided this was perfect, but by the time we returned to our current site, neither of us could be bothered to pack everything up just to get it all out again 30 minutes later. It seems our laziness (or if you can think of of a verb that takes more of the blame off us, use that please!) has cost us an extra €5.80 for tonight.

We only have 7 or so cycling days left so we're trying to plan out a nice circular loop that takes us back towards the coast (for a day on the beach) and Saintes where we get picked up at the end of the trip. If we stretch ourselves, we might be able to make it to Clermont-Ferrand, which is meant to be a nice place, but only time will tell if we'll be able to make it that far.

Notre Tour de France #15 (60 mi)

It was a late start for us this morning, not setting off until 09:30. We also had a choice of the direction in which to head. West would take us to the seaside where we could relax and enjoy the beaches, but this area of France we have already passed through. Alternatively we could head East - further inland to new territory. The latter was the option we selected, aiming in the direction of a village called Chantonnay.

As we rolled through the hilly countryside, we came upon a French cyclist in the village Thorigny battling his way up one of the many hills. Subconsciously or not, we took this as a challenge and went full steam ahead. Legs pumping, lungs struggling and brows sweating, we powered our way past the gentleman leaving him for dust. Oh my, it's been a fantastic year for British cycling, and what a marvellous manoeuvre by these two young cyclists. I don't believe it, Phil, and they're carrying everything but the kitchen sink. A few minutes later as we took a rest on a gentle descent, the cyclist reappeared and as he cycled past with a look of a mixture of astonishment and exhaustion, he said something that could only be translated as "Eee by gum, lads, I don't know where that came from but I'll look out for you both in the Tour next year. Now please excuse me while I go home and feel sorry for myself".

At around noon we arrived at Chantonnay, more than ready for a spot of lunch. We unfortunately just missed out on the Saturday morning market, but the village looked nice enough to do a bit of exploring. We selected a campsite just outside of Parthenay for tonight, in a village called Secondigny. The site, Le Moulin des Effres, seems nice enough so far, though they do charge for wifi which we really don't like. There's a swimming pool which we might use later on. Not the cheapest, but also not the most expensive place we've stayed at.

The journey over here was hard going as the countryside was very undulating - almost like a rollercoaster. Up, and down, and up, and back down again. Repeat many times over for about 60 miles or so.

Only a couple of days after I fitted the replacement gear shifter to my bike, and you can't make this up, today a rhythmic clicking has manifested itself in my bike. With every pedal stroke - click. Click, click, click. I've had a look and nothing is catching or rubbing. I've narrowed it down to either a pedal bearing or a bottom bracket bearing, and it better not be the latter because I bought a new one just a couple of days before this trip. If it is, well it's a good job I like writing complaint letters. I already need to get back to Halfords to a) fight for a reimbursement for the aforementioned bottom bracket which should have been covered under warranty, but they couldn't source the part from their suppliers and so I had to purchase it myself. And b) to get a refund for the replacement gear shifter, which is covered under warranty. Good job as well - it cost £125. You can buy a bike for this.

Jwan and I are off in to town now to do a little exploring. Hope you've been enjoying the warm weather and thunderstorms back at home!

Notre Tour de France #14 (39 mi)

As with a lot of the days we've spent over here, we awoke to perfectly clear blue skies. Something happened though; as we were pulling down the tent, the entire sky became muddied with cloud in what seemed like a fraction of a second.

With no breakfast left in the trailer (usually chocolate musli with UHT milk from Lidl mmm), we cycled on empty stomachs over to La Chapelle Hermier for a coffee and a croissant. From here we made good progress into the centre of La Roche-sur-Yon. Jwan is maintaining his newfound pace on the bike, with me struggling away behind him. A German at the bar pointed us to the tourism office, who in turn pointed us towards a place called Aubigny for a campsite. Despite today being at rest day, we've cycled nearly 40 miles.

En-route to this campsite, we saw signs for camping and followed these, which took us to a campsite we didn't know about and which was a little closer to La Roche. After being notably underwhelmed at the campsite yesterday, we had the opposite reaction to this one. It's not as though it's massively different either, which is strange. Both have swimming pools and all the standard facilities, and the grounds are very nice at both. Here though we were given a warm welcome, and (an important point here), we weren't charged for Wifi. Neither of us can quite put our fingers on why this one feels so much better. Perhaps the air is different here?

After pitching and unhitching BOB the trailer, we set off back to La Roche to go and explore. It was nice, but again very quiet compared to British towns of a similar size. Put as nicely as possible, I'd describe the place as half dead... The aforementioned cloud cover soon melted away to leave an afternoon both hot and sunny; the kind of weather which gives you a big dose of lethargy and almost demands that you take an afternoon nap. Do you know why the sky is blue? We do ;-) Good ol' Rayleigh scattering.

Dinner today comprised of vegetables with cous cous. It made a nice change to all the meat we've been eating, but I think I ate too much of it. For the remainder of the day we did nothing in particular. A load of washing was done, I spend some time with Stephen King and Jwan spent some time on the Internet.

Notre Tour de France #13 (76 mi)

Awake, breakfast, pack up, bathroom, and away. We followed the route I took yesterday on my own to the coast, starting at L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer and working our way north. A quick check of the wifi before we left confirmed that my replacement gear shifter would be delivered today, despite only ordering it on Tuesday evening from England. So now we have a target destination: Camping Le Pin Parasol where it will be delivered.

After our routine coffee in L'Aiguillon (expensive at €1.50 each... Yesterday we paid just €1 each and that came with a biscuit), we made good progress along the flat coastline. Jwan was a rocket today and there was barely a moment when I wasn't struggling to keep up with him. With his new cycling outfit that he bought the other day, which is colour coordinated with his bike and helmet, he really does look the business.

After buying lunch in a supermarket in Les Sables D'Olonne, we put it in the panniers to find somewhere scenic to eat. At one point we got split up. Jwan entered a roundabout but I wasn't quick enough and had to wait for it to clear. I then ended up taking a different exit. Once I realised what had happened, my first thought wasn't "how am I going to find him", but rather "he's got the bloody sandwiches with him and I'm hungry!". About 10 minutes later when we were reunited, I told this to Jwan who promptly laughed to himself and said "my first thought was that I have the sandwiches but you have the drinks, and I can't have my lunch without the diet Coca Cola".

The original plan was to make good progress, which we did, and then go relax on one of the beaches for a couple of hours. Well, the weather forecast for today was completely wrong. It was meant to be hot and sunny, but a blanket of cloud soon threw that forecast out of the window. It became cool and the sun only made an appearance in the late evening.

We made it to Camping Le Pin Parasol and I collected my bike part. We then cycled down the road to a lay-by by the lake, where I fit it while Jwan went around exploring the local area. Once this was all finished, we set off to the neighbouring village to find a supposed municipal campsite, as Pin Parasol would have cost us over €32 for one night! Such a campsite didn't exist, so we backtracked about 3 miles to another site. This was very nice... But also at full capacity. So off we set again and 10 minutes later we found one which had some places available.

It is the most expensive campsite we have stayed at yet at €19 per night, but we were both too tired to continue our search. To make the most of such an extravagant purchase, we used the pool for 30 minutes or so before it closed. There is wifi here, but at a cost of €15 for three days. No thank you very much. The prices in the bar and the shop are also bordering on ridiculous. The site itself is nice, but we're just not getting that "good vibe" that we've had at other sites. We might stay here for another night simply for the convenience, otherwise we will pack up in the morning and take the equipment over in the direction of La Roche-sur-Yon, which we plan to explore for the day. If we see a more suitable campsite on the way, we can drop the baggage off en-route.

And that's all for today. I could relax here with a Piña Colada, but it'll cost me €4.80. I could have an ice cream, but that will cost me €2.50. Ugh. I think I might go and sulk in bed. See you later.