Day 15 Exideuil to Saint Mars d'Outille

Before I turned out the light last night, it had started to rain, soon followed by the lightning and thunder. I hadn't been asleep long before the shutters were banging in the wind, so up I got to close them, getting a soaking arm in the process, having to reach round to grab hold of them!

 

Louise had said she got someone in to do breakfast. Not sure why. Hardly a banquet!

 

After last night's rain, the bikes were, of course, soaked. We were parked on a sandy base, so the rain had splattered that everywhere. This morning, however, was looking promising, though the forecast had suggested more thunder was on the way. Waterproofs were strategically moved to the top of the top-bag.

 

We set off, to "Bon Journee" from one of the neighbours, crossed the river Vienne and made our way north. We were making very good time, as again the French roads, even off motorway, allow some reasonable pace to be maintained. We crossed the Vienne another couple of times along the way and the Loire, just before our fuel stop. As it was Sunday, pretty much everywhere was closed and the Leader Price supermarket was no exception. The fuel stations are 24/7 though, so you can still buy fuel, so long as you use a card. Grizzly prefers cash but needs must. Fuelled up and ready to go, we were well ahead of the time I'd told Tina, at Les Cheres Meres, we would arrive. We still had to find somewhere to have a lunch stop, so that would kill some time but even so, we were probably looking at being 2 hours early.

 

We carried on, the weather still holding out. It wasn't too bright but by the same token, didn't look like thunder either. Tomtom took us down some nice little excursions. One second we'd be on a nice A road, next we'd be sent off down a narrow D road. At one point we ended up running over a tiny bridge, barely wide enough for a car. At another point, we passed a little old lady, rotavating her back garden, so tomtom has given us some sights we wouldn't ordinarily have seen.

 



A sunflower field, one of many



In a couple of places the road was wet but we just seemed to be out of the range of the rain. Looking for a lunch stop, we pulled into this little village. I have no idea what it was called. We parked in front of the Marie, the town hall and made our way over to a bar/snack bar. It looked a bit grim, so we went across to the opposite corner, a bar/restaurant, which looked far more promising. A lady greeted us. As we had dinner booked for the evening we didn't want much. I struggled to get across that we wanted something small, her thinking we wanted breakfast. She did speak a fair bit of English though, so we let her do most of the work! We ended up with some little French bread toasts with goats cheese, lamb and tomato on them, on a bed of salad, washed down with a cup of coffee.

 

The lady, Marie-Jo, asked me if I spoke French. Clearly my attempts earlier had made her think otherwise.  I said a little, at which point she tried, or so I thought, to give me a lesson. Je tu aime, she had me say. Then giggled, when I repeated it, coz I'd said I liked her! We weren't sure she was the full Franc (Euro) but she was friendly enough. Suddenly Grizzly became a linguist like never before all tour, asking for the bill in French! She wrote good afternoon on it and her name. I thought she had taken a shine to Grizzly but he thought the other way, as she asked me if I was tired. Maybe she was suggesting a lie down, I don't know, I have been looking tired, due to the 6:45 alarm call every feckin' morning! We spent an hour in the restaurant, during which time it rained quite hard. Grizzly had brought his helmet in, whilst I'd left mine outside. She thought I was "stupide"! I still think she had the hots for him, rather than me! If indeed for either of us.

 

When it came time to leave, Monsieur Ahern proffered his cheek and Marie-Jo gratefully pecked both. "Oh yes", I said to him, winding him up, at which point I got the same treatment. She was harmless enough and amused us for a while, whilst the rain passed over.

 

Back on the bike, which had now dried in the sun, we had about an hour to go to reach Les Cheres Meres. In fact it was less, so we arrived at the most delightful farmhouse, in Saint Mars-d'Outille, two and a half hours ahead of the time I'd said. Our room wasn't ready, you'll not be surprised to learn.