Day 14 - Villefranche to Exideuil

I was up early, even before "how we doing Woody?". My stomach was in turmoil.  3 trips to the loo before we left and some tablets seemed to do the trick. Can't imagine anything on the pizza could have caused this. Maybe the beer? Glass of Leffe in Frejus, stomach pains next day. 3 bottles last night, and real troubles this morning. Coincidence?

 

Today was a fast riding day, meaning we didn't set tomtom to avoid motorways. The reason, we were aiming to visit Oradour-sur-Glane, the scene of a Nazi massacre in July 1944 and wanted to spend as much time as possible there. Before that though, we had a couple of hundred metres to go to our fuel stop. Grizzly left there far from happy. He had put in €15.01 of fuel. We've all been there, trying to get it to the round figure. Giving the woman in the booth €15 and turning away, she called him back and made him pay that 1c!  There were some choice words coming from inside his helmet, that was for sure.

 

We were lucky with the weather again, the sun's warmth just coming through as we hit the road. After an initial foray on the back roads we came upon the main arterial road up to Limoges. 2 lanes and a 130kph (80mph) speed limit. We were happy enough to cruise at 70. Well, I was. Minding my own business in the nearside lane, Grizzly suddenly shot past and gradually disappeared into the distance. There was I watching my speed, as Grizzly had said his Honda would struggle to make the fuel stop after high speed and he was feckin' off over the horizon! When I could barely make out his tail light, I pulled out into the offside lane and gave the Sprint her head. At 80mph, it wasn't long before I had made up the ground and pulled in in front of him once more. This time he seemed content to sit behind.

 

Pulling off the motorway at Limoges, it wasn't long before Grizzly told me he didn't think he'd make the next fuel stop, so we had to look for a fuel station. It was ages before we came across one though, just 10 miles short of Oradour. The next fuel stop, was less than 1km from the memorial site, in the 'new' town itself.

 

Parked up at the village memorial site, Grizzly then tells me his low fuel warning light wasn't even on, so he could have made it to the scheduled stop! Eejit! No matter, we cut that out and will add another tomorrow. I have plenty of range on mine to not need these 150 mile stops anyway.

 

Dudley's bandana and a rusting relic of that terrible day,
Oradour-Sur-Glane

 

We spent a couple of hours probably, at the site. Even so, we were still early arriving at the hotel in Exideuil. The French roads really make it easier to cover the miles quicker than the route plan suggests. We parked up around the side and I went around front and pressed the bell. After a while, the landlady, Louise, from Gloucester, opened the door and beckoned me in. I explained Grizzly was around the side, so she said we could let him in the side door.

 

We let him in the side door and then for some inexplicable reason, I made a complete c*ck of myself. Louise looked to me, as she had opened the door, to be with child, so as she offered to help Grizzly with his bags, my mouth uttered the words, "I don't think you should be doing that in your condition". Yes, believe it people, it happened. As I went to shut the door, it occured to me that was not something I should have said and I commented to that effect. To my relief, she said she wasn't pregnant but had just had a baby 2 weeks previously. Phew, she wasn't just a chubber then! Needless to say Grizzly has given me major grief for opening my mouth in the first place, probably deserved. This was definitely a case of the brain not being engaged before the mouth opened. 

 

She showed us to the room and advised we may be able to get a meal at a bar up the road or if he wasn't open, at a camp site over the river. The bridge was a few hundred metres away, so all in all about a 15-20 minute walk. The bar was shut, so over the bridge we went, crossing the river Vienne. At the campsite we came across the 'restaurant'. We ordered some beers and then beef kebabs, for Grizzly, chicken for me, served with chips and salad. Gradually more people came to dine but none at all from the camp site, so I expect this was the only place for miles around, to get a meal out. Another beer and we made our way back along the river bank and back to the hotel.

 

La Vienne

We had a lot of clothes hanging on the shutters, drying off but the forecast was for thunder, so we have brought those in.

 

Tomorrow we are on our way to Saint Mars-d'outille, just south of Le Mans. Forecast is again for thunder, so the waterproofs may have to come out again.