Last night at about 2am the temperature suddenly dropped drastically. Neither of us slept well as we were absolutely frozen, despite adding extra layers of clothing.
Got up late. Good weather again and the morning sun was warm and welcome. Headed straight to Aldi for emergency blankets followed by pain au choc in the car park for breakfast. So classy.
Jackie’s been searching for a Tupperware since Sunday to safely transport takeaway food. She finally found one in Super-U near Aldi. I’ve never seen her so pleased with herself!
Cycled a mere 24 miles through beautiful countryside to our next campsite, pausing only to say hi to a horse on the way. We’d decided to take it easy today as we had slept so little and my knee could do with some rest, although luckily it was already showing signs of improvement.
The riverside campsite was remote and mostly closed. No staff, only one toilet open and two taps working. Fine for us though and we put up the tent on a generous and comfortable pitch.
Set off without luggage to cycle into nearby Segré and the bikes felt weightless. Only to discover yet another ‘Route Barré’! Road resurfacing again. This was becoming annoyingly frequent. Two helpful municipal workers who were tending to the plants on a roundabout gave us directions for an alternative route which wasn’t much longer but included a very nasty climb followed by a long descent that we weren’t keen to ride on the way back later.
Arrived in Segré to find, yes you’ve guessed it, ‘Route Barré’. This time we were able to ignore the signs and pick our way through the resurfacing works but this was the street with most of the town’s eateries and they’d all closed for the duration of the roadworks. Bought croque poulet and tarte au citron avec meringué from a takeaway and ate it outdoors beside the river at a tabac where we got coffee. Chose a selection of food for our evening meal in a nearby Spar and headed back to the campsite. Hurrah!! The roadworks had finished and we skirted the evil hill.
Back at camp we met a fellow cyclist and did our best to share tales of tendinitis and cycling routes entirely in French. Ate our dinner by the river and replanned our routes for the next two days to incorporate a luxury campsite with facilities especially geared towards cyclists. A very lovely dog sat beside me for ages politely waiting for some picnic.
Early to bed. >40 miles tomorrow so we need an early start.
Miles today: 28
Total miles: 152
Good things today:
- Finding hilarious blankets
- Breakfast in Aldi car park
- Mischievous old man
- Finding Tupperware
- Friendly horse
- Helpful roundabout people
- Nice chat with a local outside the tabac
- Lemon meringue pie
- Chat with cyclist on campsite
- Picnic dinner
- Friendly dog
Who is the mischievous old man? He earned a bullet-point shout-out but is nowhere to be found in the blog itself. I MUST know!
I was waiting in the Aldi car park while Jackie bought the blankets. An old man arrived on a bicycle. He started chatting to me and as soon as he realised I was English he started ranting about Macron, something I didn’t understand and I also didn’t get the link between Macron and the English.
I asked him if there were any toilets nearby. He said there were some at the Super-U around the corner but it was closed today and I would have to go back into town. I wasn’t inclined to take him at his word and when Jackie reappeared, Super-U is exactly where we headed. Arrived there to find the old man’s bike parked outside. Went in and saw he was in the queue at a checkout.
I don’t why he lied but he sure didn’t want me to jettison my English wee in the toilet of his favourite shop.