Mad dogs and British cyclists!

So that would be us then! After a good night's sleep in an air conditioned room we got up at 6.00am to make sure we got as far as possible before the heat got too bad. The route was billed as 75 miles following this bike route I mentioned, but we reckoned a lot of it was on rough track and hence slow, so we decided to plot our own route by quiet road - which in the end we were relieved to find was only  63 miles, so we were nearly here before it got seriously hot.  Having had so many problems finding our way into La Rochelle, we were pleasantly surprised to sail out the other side with no problem. In fact most of the morning was incident free apart from our encounter with a tree chopping machine - see picture below. We didn't even have any major navigation problems and with some masterly navigation ( she said immodestly) we slid round the side of the only large town on route (Rochefort). I was a little surprised at how quiet the road was until we discovered that the only bridge across the river had been declared unsafe for motorised vehicles so only bikes and pedestrians could use it. It was a rather attractive suspension bridge (see below), but not the safest I have ever come across.

We passed field after field of sunflowers and did find some that were still in full flower, again shown in the pictures. I had a bit of a scary moment as we cycled past an enormous field of dying plants, the strong wind meant that they were rustling loudly and appeared to be whispering to each other. All I could think of was 'Day of the Triffids' one of my all-time favourite books ( the film is spectacularly bad, but the book is great) and how the plants communicated with each other, before trying to exterminate the human race.  Certainly made me turn the pedals a bit faster.......

We got to the next village along the coast from the town of Royan ( our final destination) for a late lunch, having already done about 57 miles. We expected to find our hotel just around the corner, but it was another 6 miles in the baking heat before we tracked it down. As it is called the (not very) 'Grand Hotel de Plage' we thought it was safe to assume it would be on the beach. What we hadn't reckoned on was how many beaches there are in Royan. Anyway we finally made it here safely, with time to rinse out some sweaty gear, which is fluttering attractively on our first floor balcony.

I am wondering when the Mechanic is going to spot that we have only had one cycling day, out of 10 to date, that has been less than 60 miles, despite the fact that I assured him the average distance per day was only just over 60 miles. I am keeping quiet for now, although at least tomorrow is shorter as we are taking a ferry first to avoid having to negotiate our way round Bordeaux.

Observation on the many French cycling enthusiasts we have seen (as opposed to normal people doing their shopping etc on 'sit up and beg bikes'. The groups we have seen are all exclusively male and all appear to have to wear identical kit - I am guessing that it is fashion crime not to all wear matching shorts and jerseys. There also seem to be a lot of these groups out cycling at all hours every day of the week, so perhaps the whole of France really does go on holiday in August.