This will be a long day, 90km plus and 700m climbing. Also I have a deadline, I need to get to the hotel by 7 for dinner then I have a zoom seminar to attend at 8.
I don’t like hurrying, so try to go steadily, even taking a detour along a cycleway which just looked attractive, and it is, lovely quiet gravel paths, see nly one tractor and one cyclist in half an hour.
Then a lake with a large number of large egrets on it, but they all flew away when I stopped for a photo. Along with the ducks, they are n the otherside now.
The main route takes me along a railway line, this will go on for about 60km. easy steady riding, fine gravel surface, wearing after an hour or two, but soothing in a way too, lovely weather, sunshine and clouds, not too hot.
These flowers are White Campion, they flower in spring mainly but again in a fine Autumn, they are all along the route in the hedgerows.
Lunch, this is one delicious baguette, crispy and light – only in France.
And then, lean back, look up and let go.
Birds on a wire –
“like a bird on a wire,
Like a drunk in some midnight choir,
I have tried, in my way, to be free”
Leonard Cohen.
Cycling routes in France are so well provided, lovely shiny bridge here.
This sculpture is in the grounds of yet another castle, someone has added an offering of conkers and twigs.
My destination was Parthanay. You never know what you will get really, in this case Parthanay turns out to be a busy small town, full of traffic, I approach on a main road and have to cross town, which is a struggle, my hotel is on the roundabout of a major road junction. It once was a modern place but that was 30 years ago and now it has seen better days, the receptionist is snoozing with his head on the table, he wakes with a start when I enter. But he’s a nice chap and he finds a place for my bike (in what was once the bar) and yes the restaurant wll open at 7, and I find that the wifi is excellent in my room, so no probs with the zoom.
At dinner the same guy is the waiter, the meal is a fixed menu, but it’s OK, I’m not complaining, the standard starter around here is beetroot with some strands of smoked trout. I will have several versions of this, this one is ok, beer, chicken casserole, cheeseboard. The staff and the few other customers are all middle-eastern, the guests seem to be small-business men, all on their mobile phones, doing deals I assume.
Then I do the first installment of my literature course on French Short Stories – tonight it is Colette, good fun.