Early starts

After a hot, sticky and noisy night with a lot of tossing and turning but not much sleeping, we were up at 6.00am and left the hotel in the pitch black to get the first ferry across the bay - leaving Charente Maritime and landing in the Girande. We were across the bay and on the road by 7.45am in an attempt to miss the worst of the heat. We cycled virtually the whole day on traffic free cycle paths with a smooth Tarmac surface, first following an old railway line, then through ancient woodland on properly surfaced tarmac trails and when we did have to follow a road there was a separated 2 lane cycle way along the side. We popped out in enough villages to get refreshment, but kept going to try and reach our destination before the worst of the heat - we have seen readings of 34 and 35 degrees over the last 2 days - but in fact today wasn't quite as bad, partly because we were in trees much of the time,  but also because the wind is slowly changing direction and was off he sea today.

It was supposed to be 51 miles today, but somehow ended up being 67, partly due to the fact that he hotel I booked is a bit outside town, so we had to return to eat this evening. Nothing much of interest happened today, so I though I could bring some of the oddities we have encountered to your attention.

First of all - hands up who knows what happens in an 'Animalerie' or a 'Herboristerie'? I can guess what goes on in a 'Sandwicherie' although not sure I could bring myself to use something of that name.

We have seen a lot of signs for 'Pedicure / Podologue' - any ideas on a podologue? I put the word into my electronic translator, but the I- pad gave a Gallic shrug and refused to provide an answer. Also wondering about 'Californian Medelage' or in fact any other form of Medelage and why would anyone want to eat caramel flavoured potato crisps? These intriguing international issues tend to keep us occupied over our daily dose of domestos blended with paint stripper ( or house white wine as they tend to refer to it as over here).  I had to keep Chris away from the tattoo and body piercing boutique today - he seemed quite keen until he saw the proprietors. I was a little concerned about the advertised 'accessories' - tassles for your nipple ring perhaps?

We are staying in a posh establishment with air con tonight, although the bright orange bathroom is a bit weird, but marginally better than the pinky peach last night - we reckon the latter is the French equivalent of avocado in the UK.

It looks a bit as if the heat wave might be on its way out and I can't say I'll be sorry, although might change my tune if we get days of uninterrupted rain. We have seen literally hundreds of cyclists today carrying everything from surf boards to tents to shopping to picnic tables - nothing too big or too unwieldy to be strapped on somewhere to endanger anyone else on the path ( fishing rods are a particular hazard.