Sunday
1st
June 2014. We
started June just as we had ended May...with a market. La Palmyre has
a market every Sunday so we set off after breakfast and headed to the
beach. It was a bright but cloudy day so we packed our beach towels
and a lunch too. After an hour enjoying the market we decided to head
further along the coast as it was too cloudy to sit on the beach. We
followed the cycle path along the coast until we came to the next
sandy beach but when we saw the sign for the naturist beach we
decided this was probably not the best place to stop for lunch and
carried on further up the coast. We had an enjoyable ride along the
coast and stopped to enjoy the chocolate brioches we had bought at
the market before heading back to La Palmyre.
 |
| La Palmyre beach |
By the time we got
there the clouds had blown away and we sat on the beach to finish our
lunch. I lay back to enjoy the heat of the sun and it was the sound
of my own snoring that woke me up an hour later!! On return to the
campsite we bumped in to a lovely couple, Lesley and Paul, that we
had met just briefly when they had arrived at the campsite at
L'Houmeau just as we were leaving. Talk about small world! They
invited us to join them for a drink and we spent a very enjoyable
hour chatting over a glass of wine (beer for the men). Every now and
again you meet people where you instantly feel at ease in their
company and Lesley and Paul where one of those couples. It was a
shame we were leaving the next morning but hopefully we will meet
them again next time they come to France when it will be our chance
to return their hospitality.
Tuesday
3rd
June 2014. Yesterday
we moved to the lovely Aire at La Palmyre. It had been almost full
the day before when we had cycled past but as the weekend was now
over we had it virtually to ourselves.
 |
| The Aire at La Palmyre |
It was in a stunning location
adjacent to the beach and as it was such a gorgeous day that is where
we spent the afternoon. This morning it was overcast so we left early
and headed for our next stop, another lovely Aire at Mortagne Sur
Gironde. It was set on the harbour in a lovely peaceful location. The
added bonus was discovering they had free Wifi. I spent a couple of
hours on-line, updating my blog and checking campsite reviews as we
had decided to spend a few days on a site when we got to the Arcachon
area. The weather forecast heading in to the weekend was for glorious
sunshine and high temperatures, better suited to swimming and
sunbathing rather than cycling. While I was busy Glynn got the bikes
out of the garage and discovered he had another puncture. In spite of
being busy I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and capturing the
moment to add to the others I had taken.
 |
| Puncture no 4! |
Glynn smiled for the camera,
or was that a grimace? I decided I might have to start taking bets on
how many punctures he will have had by the time we return in October.
Although it was windy the sky had cleared and it was a gorgeous
afternoon so we decided to explore the area. After all the incredibly
flat landscapes we had been cycling in we now had hills to contend
with and as we headed out of town we soon found ourselves climbing
higher and higher. The amount of cycling we had done recently paid
off as I found I was able to climb the hills with ease, albeit in a
very high gear. The views across the valley were amazing and we spent
an enjoyable hour climbing and descending the hilly terrain. Even
with a full on head wind I was flying down the hills at an incredible
speed. I am a big fan of lengthy bike rides on a fairly even terrain
whereas Glynn gets more excited by shorter rides on the hills so for
once it was nice that I actually enjoyed the challenging climbs,
maybe in part to the increased fitness from having covered so many
miles lately. We headed back to cook dinner and spend the evening
relaxing. We managed a brief skype session with Darryl and Lisa to
check everything was okay at home and our friends Sharon and Glynn
(no 2) but the Wifi was struggling and we got cut off so we gave up
and sat chatting and reading.
Wednesday
4th
June 2014. After
reading my Lonely Planet guide to France I suggested we head to St
Émilion to spend a night before heading towards the coast near
Arcachon.
 |
| Spot Herman hiding amongst the vines! |
We set off for a France Passion site just outside the town
and just 90 minutes later we were parked adjacent to the vineyard. In
every direction there were acres of vines as far as the eye could
see. After a quick cuppa we headed over to the shop for some wine
tasting. We spent over an hour learning so much about the whole
process of wine making and all the things that can affect the quality
of a crop and it was fascinating. We tried three different vintages
of the same wine to show us how the taste develops and splashed out
on the older vintage to enjoy on our wedding anniversary on 7th
June.
 |
| St Émilion |
We then took a walk into St Émilion which was only 20 minutes
away. The town was a lovely maze of steep, narrow cobbled streets
with some beautiful historical buildings and we enjoyed a leisurely
stroll around the town. Almost every other shop was a wine merchant offering wine tasting and it would have been an easy way to have a cheap day out but we
resisted. Well almost... but the guy didn't really give me a chance
to say no!!
 |
| The view from St Émilion |
As we
sat chatting later that evening the old boy who owned the vineyard
got himself a ladder and was collecting cherries from the tree just
in front of where we were parked. I joked to Glynn that when he went
to put the ladder away I was going to sneak out and pinch some
cherries.....we were delighted when we got up the next morning and
found he'd left a bag of them on our step.
Friday
6th
June 2014. Yesterday
we drove to Audenge via Bordeaux and what a nightmare the ring road
was. It reminded me of the M25 on a bad day. This was the first time
we had been caught in traffic and we crawled along until we
eventually came off on to the A63. We could see that there was major
roadworks going on just as we turned off so this explained the
unusually slow traffic. I had picked the campsite at Audenge because
of it's brilliant location for cycling round to Cap Ferret. The
campsite had a slightly worn out appearance with pitches which seemed
to have more weeds and bare patches than grass but as we were only
planning on stopping 2 days it didn't matter. The main thing was
whether the shower block was clean and it was and there was the added
bonus of free wifi. A lot of the campsites we had stayed at had been
very quiet but this site was almost full. Unfortunately, as it turned
out, a very large group of Eastern European fruit pickers arrived
just after us and proceeded to set up their tents close by. The
reason I say unfortunately is that this particular group appeared to
require very little sleep. They were a happy bunch but at midnight I
am no longer interested in their happy disposition and funny enough I
am even less interested at 6am!!
 |
| Puncture no 5! |
Once we
had levelled Herman and connected him to the mains we decided to go out
for a quick ride as we wanted to check if the cycle paths were
suitable for our road bikes as the distance to Cap Ferret was a bit
far for the mountain bikes. Guess what?? Glynn had puncture number 5!! I made a cup of tea while he got his rapidly dwindling puncture repair kit out. He has become a bit of an expert at fixing punctures now and in no time we were off. The cycle paths were so good that before
we knew it we had done another 22kms, a nice warm up for the next
day!
Now
what better way is there to spend a beautiful hot sunny day, forecast
to reach 35° than to lay by the pool and relax.....but we never were
sensible so after our rude awakening at 6am I had made a packed lunch
while Glynn got the road bikes out and checked for punctures!! The
route was largely flat with nothing more taxing than a couple of
hills as we cycled through woodland just before we reached our
destination.
 |
| The Pointe at Cap Ferret |
We cycled right round to the furthest point and were
rewarded with a beautiful view across to the coast where we could see
from Arcachon to Pyla Sur Mer with the Dune de Pilat looming large in
the distance. We sat on the beach and while Glynn retrieved our warm
squashed sandwiches from underneath everything else he had piled in
to the rucksack I took some photos. It was now getting incredibly hot
and we still had the return journey to do. After a relaxing half hour
on the beach we decided we ought to head back as the breeze from
cycling was preferable to sitting in the intense sun.
 |
| Fantastic cycling paths away from the traffic |
My hands were
really starting to hurt from where I'd had the carpel tunnel
operations and I was struggling to find a comfortable hold on the
bike. In hindsight attempting such a long ride probably wasn't the
brightest decision we had made, added to that the fact that even with
my padded cycling shorts and the small fortune it cost me having my
bike set up to optimise my riding comfort I was struggling to sit
comfortably and had to check that someone hadn't actually pinched my
seat and replaced it with a razor blade. It was a great relief when
we got back to the camp. My Garmin showed we had done 87kms and
unlike the trip from Revin in France last year I had absolutely no
desire to carry on to reach 100kms. Glynn was particularly pleased as
he hadn't had a single puncture (his bad luck with punctures shows no
favouritism to any particular bike and he gets them equally on his
ride bike too normally). We headed straight for the pool when we got
back, exactly what we should have done several hours previously. If
there is one thing Glynn doesn't do its freezing cold swimming pools
and this one certainly wasn't heated so while I gradually worked my
way in, inch by painfully cold inch, he dipped his feet and declared
that was enough for him.
Saturday
7th
June 2014. Our
11th
wedding anniversary.
 |
| The Dune de Pilat |
We had decided to spend a couple of days by the
Dune de Pilat so after a brief stop at Gujan Mestras to see the port
we headed to our next campsite which was actually adjoining the Dune.
The further south we headed the scenery was changing from vineyards
to pine forests and the mainly flat landscape we had enjoyed for our
bike rides over the last month was now anything but, with some very
steep hills that I knew were going to cause me pain on my next ride.
The scenery from the campsite was breathtaking with golden sand,
turquoise sea and the biggest dune I have ever seen. If you ever get
a chance to visit it you won't be disappointed. When we had viewed it
from the point at Cap Ferret it didn't appear that spectacular but
actually being on it was incredible.
 |
| Sunset on the Dune |
We watched lots of people
attempting to paraglide from the peaks and after deciding our legs
weren't up to climbing in the soft sand we opted to spend the
afternoon by the pool. We had planned on going out for a meal for our
anniversary but the only restaurant in the vicinity was the one on
the campsite and, although the views were stunning from the
restaurant balcony the menu did little to excite our taste buds. I
decided to cook a potato and chorizo frittata with a salad and we
accompanied our meal with the wine we had bought from the vineyard at
St Emilion.
 |
| Ooops not quick enough! |
I wanted a picture of us together so I set the timer on
the camera, perched it on a tree stump and dashed back to sit down
just as I heard it click. On the second attempt we managed to both be
raising our glasses in a toast before it went off but unfortunately
it wasn't until the next day that I realised the picture was out of
focus. Oh well, we have the memories in our heads.
 |
| Cheers!! |
Shortly after 9pm
the sky suddenly turned black and bizarrely, after a beautifully hot
30° day we were now blessed with large hailstones that thundered on
to the roof making conversation difficult. I fully expected to find
our solar panel smashed the next day. As we could no longer sit
outside we decided to play Trivial pursuit again. I was on a roll and
quickly filled my tiles while Glynn only had two of his. I then
proceeded to pass the centre square time and again without managing
to land on it. Glynn caught me up and annoyingly landed on the centre
square quite quickly. “Blue” I said before reading out the
question. “What are Great Bear and Great Slave in Canada and Great
Salt in the USA” Dammit why do I always pick the easiest question
when he is on the centre square!! He grinned and said “lakes”.
 |
| Another sunset from the Dune |
We
decided to have another game and this time we both got our 6 tiles
about the same time. After a few wrong answers from both of us on the
centre square Glynn managed to land on it again. I opted for brown
this time “Which was the only EC country to vote against
hard-hitting messages printed on cigarette packets?” Double dammit,
I had managed to pick the only question on the card that he knew the
answer to. With another annoying grin he said “Us, the UK”. Now
the actual word printed on the card was “Britain” but how could I
refuse him the victory without appearing churlish? Although I did
point out that the game was largely down to the luck of the dice as I
had all six tiles on the first game when he had only managed to get
two!! That means the score is now 4-1.
8th
June 2014. We
cycled to Arcachon today and what a delight it was.
 |
| The beach at Arcachon |
It was quite a
large town but was incredibly clean and well maintained and had the
appearance of being new and fresh. We enjoyed a lovely stroll around
some of the streets but as it was a Sunday there were crowds of
people and only the touristy shops were open. We added it to our list
of places to return to and visited the local boulangerie before
sitting on the edge of the beach to eat the quiche and cakes we had
just bought. We could see the point at Cap Ferret across the bay
where we had looked over towards Arcachon and the Dune. We headed
back and although it was only a 30km ride our legs, which clearly
hadn't fully recovered from the big ride two days previously,
protested silently but painfully on the climbs, slowing us down. I
managed to keep going and it was only when we were back at the
campsite and climbing the last really steep hill to where we were
parked that I finally admitted defeat and pushed my bike the last
100yds. I blame
it on my gears slipping at the crucial moment which made me lose
momentum! It was a relief to get back and we opted for another
afternoon by the pool.
11th
June 2014. We have spent the last 3 days on a lovely Aire on the edge
of a lake at Gastes, just south of Biscarrosse.
 |
| The Aire at Gastes |
The view was stunning
looking out over the lake with boats in the foreground and a lovely
little beach to one side. We had originally planned to stay one night
but it was such a beautiful and peaceful location and only €4.50
per night so good for the budget!! As with almost everywhere we have
stayed a cycle path passed right along the edge of the Aire and over
the last 3 days we have cycled over 70 kms exploring the area.
Tonight we decided to play Rummikub as a change from Trivial Pursuit.
 |
| Our view from the Aire |
Now this is my kind of game as I love anything to do with numbers and
I particularly enjoy finding ways to rearrange the sets that have
been laid to incorporate my tiles. After beating Glynn in 3 straight
games he said" well that's 1-0 to you" as we packed the
game away. Cheeky monkey, if it's 4-1 to him on Trivial Pursuit then
it's definitely 3-0 to me on Rummikub!! Tomorrow we are moving on to
a site near Messanges as we have been told that the villages along
the coast there are beautiful to explore.
15th
June 2014. We have just spent probably the best 4 days of our trip so
far.
 |
| The beach at Vieux-Boucau-Les-Bains |
We have visited some stunning places but this area will take
some beating. We stayed at a lovely little campsite called Les
Acacias, just outside Messanges and we cycled to
Vieux-Boucau-Les-Bains, Soustons, Messanges, Léon and Moliets et
Maa. The beaches were stunning as were the villages but our favourite
by far was the beautiful little town of a Vieux-Boucau-Les-Bains.
 |
| Vieux-Boucau-Les-Bains |
We
cycled 110 kms on beautiful wide tarmaced cycle paths which were well
away from the roads, winding through the pine forests before reaching
the next village. We visited all the local beaches on our trips and
each afternoon we returned to our campsite to enjoy lunch before
spending the afternoons relaxing in the sun. We still hadn't sussed
how to pick up French TV on our satellite so Glynn was delighted to
find a bar just 1km away and we cycled there on the evening of the
Spain/Holland game so he could watch the game.
Luckily for me I was
able to pick up
 |
| The cycle path |
a FON network and amused myself sending WhatsApp
messages to my friends and family and planning our next destination.
16th
June 2014. This morning we set off to head to our next destination
which was St-Jean-de-Luz, just past Biarritz. I thought things had
been going a bit smoothly lately so I wasn't surprised when today
turned out to be one of those eventful ones, reminding me of the
first week of our trip. The problems started as soon as we set off.
Glynn switched the fan on and.........nothing! The dial goes from 1
to 3 and then max/screen. He turned it on to each setting and there
was nothing until he got to the max setting and the force of the air
gave me a temporary face lift!! Oh well at least we could cool down
now although it was quite disconcerting when I caught sight of myself
in the rear view mirror just as he switched the fan off and I
suddenly aged 10 years as everything dropped back in to place. Which
reminds me, can anyone tell me why motorhomes with no rear window
have a rear view mirror? We stopped at Lidl to stock up and we were
soon on our way again. The views as we drove through Biarritz were
stunning with the Pyrenees peeking at us in the distance and the
beautiful bay below us to our right. It was like I imagined San
Francisco to be with every road either rising steeply or dropping
sharply with little in the way of level road in between. My calf
muscles started to twitch in fear. With only 1km to go our sat-nav
advised us to turn right. Glynn said "Are you sure, that looks a
bit tight?" "Of course" I replied, "the sat-nav
is programmed with the co-ordinates of the campsite and it says 7.5
ton limit on that sign". Now this is the first time our trusty
truck sat-nav has let us down. Glynn took the turning and 100 yards
in we saw that the road narrowed greatly and there was a sign showing
a 3.5 ton limit. Well that's just dandy, sticking the stupid sign
almost at the point of no return. As we stopped a French lady pulled
up beside us on a moped, waving her arms about, obviously trying to
tell us we couldn't go any further. Glynn pointed out that he had
actually noticed that fact although the irony was lost in
translation. She could speak some English and managed to give us
directions that would avoid the narrow section. Now for a 3 point
turn on a narrow road with a 25 foot, 4 ton Motorhome!! Luckily there
was a side turning and Glynn manoeuvred Herman in an easy 3 point
turn that soon had us facing the right way again. I set the sat-nav
to avoid that section of road and it promptly reprogrammed itself to
the exact route the lady had just described!! Without any further
problems we soon arrived at the campsite......or so I thought!!
25th
June 2014. We spent the last 3 days taking it easy and did some shopping, ironing and housework. The weather had been a bit mixed
with lots of rain forecast so we didn't want to venture too far just
in case. As it turned out we had nothing more than a few clouds
interspersed with lots of sunshine in-between. Glynn took the mickey
out of me as we were cycling back from the supermarket as my shorts
had slipped and were showing the top of my thong. Now that is not a
good look on a teenager so it definitely isn't a good look on a 52
year old!! I realised that with all the cycling I must have lost
weight as my shorts were very loose and I was constantly hitching
them up. I thought about what we had been eating and there was
definitely a good balance of cheeses, french bread, chorizo, salads,
fruit and vegetables so there was only one thing for it, I was going
to have to increase the wine consumption to counteract all the
calories burnt off cycling!! Sounded like a good compromise to me.
Tonight we played Rummikub again and Glynn played much better, making
me work hard to beat him. The final score was 3-2 to me making it 6-2
overall and 4-1 to Glynn on Trivial pursuit.
26th
June 2013. Well the rain finally arrived this morning, it was
absolutely pouring down for hours so needless to say we decided to
stay home!! I have nearly 70GB of music on my Ipod and I have been
trying to find the time to sort it out for years but had only got as
far as deleting the duplicate songs. We decided to go through the
playlist by albums and delete anything we didn't like. It took the
whole morning just to do from A to D but it was great fun and we were
rocking out in the motorhome to some classic tracks. Glynn was
adamant that the Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the UK” mustn’t be
deleted, no accounting for taste!! We came across a soundtrack album
called “Ashes to Ashes” which was a brilliant collection of
mostly 80's songs with classic tracks from the Human League, Dexy's
Midnight Runners and Ultravox so while we prepared lunch we played it
in its entirety, enjoying the blast from the past. Glynn seemed
slightly less than appreciative of my attempts at singing and any of
you that know me will probably sympathise with him as one thing I was
not blessed with was a voice like Leona Lewis! After lunch we watched
“12 years a slave” which was a great movie and just as it
finished the sun came out so we went for a walk along the beach.
There were lots of people about who had probably all had the same
idea after being cooped up indoors all day.
27th
June 2014. We decided to pop over to Spain today (like you do!!) to
visit San Sebastián.
 |
| Monte Urgull in the background |
We cycled to St Jean de Luz and chained our
bikes up at the station before catching a local train to Hendaye
which cost €6.60 return each for the 10 minute ride. We then got
another train to San Sebastián which bizarelly only cost €4.70
return each and was a 35 minute journey. We spent an absolutely
delightful few hours exploring the city which was a fascinating mix of old
and new. We walked around Monte Urgull with the huge statue of Christ
on top and back in via what appeared to be the older section of the
city.
 |
| one of the beautiful side streets |
It was a maze of narrow streets lined with beautiful tall
buildings most of which seemed to be shops or café/bars. It reminded
me slightly of Florence where the height of the buildings masks what
is around the corner and you suddenly find a beautiful church in
front of you begging to be photographed. One street seemed to be
lined with nothing but tapas bars and as we had never had an
authentic tapas lunch we decided it must be ticked off our list. It
was fascinating to see all the plates of food on the bars and we
ventured in to one to see how it worked.
 |
| Tapas anyone? |
The guy behind the bar
informed us that all the dishes were €1.80 and you just helped
yourself to as many as you wanted. We ordered a beer each and set about choosing our dishes. I decided I wanted to try
something I had never had so I opted for the salt cod with peppers in
a batter which was absolutely lovely. Glynn opted for a battered ball
containing cheese (have I ever mentioned that Glynn adores cheese?
Especially those ghastly mouldy looking ones that stink likes
someone's unwashed socks!!). We then tried another dish each and
washed it down with the beer before carrying on with our sightseeing.
 |
| Looking out from the beach |
We walked around the Bay of La Concha to the far end and then walked
back along the beach. As the weather was glorious the beach was very
busy and there were a lot of people in the shallow waters of the bay,
swimming, canoeing or just standing there chatting trying to keep
cool. After we left the beach we walked slowly back to the station
and came across the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. We had really
only seen such a tiny amount of what San Sebastián had to offer and
decided we would spend a few days in the area next year as we were
contemplating sailing to Spain in March rather than driving down
through France.
 |
| The Cathedral |
For someone who isn't keen on cities the list of ones
I would return to is growing.
28th
June 2014. As we only had 2 days left on our lovely campsite at St
Jean de Luz we decided to stay close to home and get the bedding and
towels washed. Our
next planned destination is Sare so that we can take the Rhune train
to the top of the Pyrenees and enjoy the view across the Basque
region, from France to Spain.
 |
| A stunning example of flysch rock |
We are meeting friends at Anglet on 9th
July so we want to stay close to this area. We also plan on visiting
Espellete, famous for it's peppers and Saint Pée Sur Neville too and
hopefully we will get a few more miles in on the road bikes.
30th
June 2014. Last week we met a lovely couple, Nick and Karel who have
been retired for 5 years and have toured France extensively. We spent
a very enjoyable few hours in their company, notebook in hand,
picking their brains for places they would recommend. As a result we
did a complete re-think of our plans and after their recommendation
we have now booked ourselves a nice little campsite at Le Mas D'Azil
to watch the 16th stage of the Tour de France rather than in
Carcassonne itself as we had originally planned. The TDF passes
directly through the village itself so it should be an amazing place
to spend a few days and in addition there are grottos nearby to visit
as well as just cycling and enjoying the incredible scenery. We have
a long list of other places they recommended and have added them to
our ever increasing list of places we want to visit. This now means
we won't need to hang around Carcassonne area for 8 days after
Bastille day so we will now head to Narbonne and Perpignan to take in
some of the Mediterranean coast. As their current trip is coming to
an end we are hoping to meet up with them in September when they
return.
The
last 3 nights at our campsite were slightly marred by the arrival of
a group of surf mad students who were probably keen to enjoy the
start of their summer break by going a bit wild. I had already
explained to them in my best Franglaise that bongo drums and guitars
don't go down well at 2am and they had respected that however a new
lad arrived to join them who clearly didn't share their respect and
so it was that I went storming round to their tent at 2.30am and
educated them on the best English swear words to use when totally
pissed off. It did the trick and effectively silenced them however I
was so mad I then couldn't sleep. How I wish I'd had an air horn as I
would have used it outside their tent at 7am the following morning
just for the pleasure of watching them being startled out of their
deep sleep. Now I know that's not nice but when I am sleep deprived I
do become a bit evil!!
Today
we planned to move on to St Pée Sur Nivelle but first we were going
to detour to Irun, just across the Spanish border to get some brandy
and wine. Literally as you cross the border there is an array of
shops selling alcohol, clothes, perfume, tobacco etc. With our brandy
and wine duly purchased we set off again. As we drove past an
industrial area I noticed a strong smell like a laundry and commented
that there must be an industrial laundry nearby. When we had
travelled a further 10 miles and could still smell it I started to
suspect all was not as it should be. We pulled over into the car park
of a supermarket and could already see the tell-tale signs of blue
liquid dripping out of the back of the garage area. We must have been sending a fine spray of softener over any vehicle that had followed us since we left Spain so I suppose our claim to fame is that we are responsible for making the cars of St Jean De Luz area smell sweeter!! When Glynn opened
one of the garage doors the smell was overpowering and the whole
floor was swimming in 2 litres of fabric softener. Where he had
stored the bottle on a shelf at the back it had slipped through a gap
between the bike wheels and smashed the lid! I told him I was going
to buy a new bottle and wandered off in to the supermarket leaving
him to it. When I returned the entire contents of our garage where
spread out behind Herman and Glynn was busy mopping out the garage.
Glynn looked a bit put out and said "I thought you were joking
when you said you were going shopping" . I laughed and replied
"no, we needed some fabric softener and it didn't need 2 of us
to empty the garage!!" I then helped him to wash everything down
so we could reload the garage and in spite of our best efforts to
clean everything the smell was still overpowering. We got lots of
funny looks from people as they drove past and a sympathetic nod from
a fellow motorhomer as if to say "been there and done that".
We will now invest in a strap to attach above the shelf to hold
everything in place!!
 |
| The Lake at St Pée Sur Nivelle |
We
arrived at the Aire at St Pée Sur Nivelle and it was adjacent to a
lovely lake with a man made beach. As it was a gorgeous day (and to
escape the smell coming from the garage) we donned our swimwear and
headed for the lake. We had been due to meet our friends, Peter and
Carol, on the 9th July but they had called us the previous evening to
say they would be in our area sooner than expected and would join us
today. They arrived an hour later and as they had a tandem we got our
bikes out and went for a ride around the lake. They both commented on
the strong smell coming from the garage!!
 |
| The lovely beach beside the Aire |
We
spent an enjoyable evening catching up over a glass of wine or 2!!
They had kindly brought some things from my son that we had requested
which included Glynn's birthday present of a Kindle Paperwhite. Glynn
never used to bother to read much when I met him but over the years
he had adopted my love of books and now he was annoyingly pinching my
IPad at every opportunity to read my Kindle app. Although his
birthday isn't until August 14th I insisted he opened his present
early and he was delighted to have his own Kindle. Not as delighted
as I was that he would now leave me alone with my IPad!! In addition Darryl and Lisa had sent him some puncture proof inner tubes for his birthday. I don't think I have ever seen a more appropriate present!!
Well
what a fabulous month we have had. We didn't actually get round to
using our road bikes but we did manage to clock up 49l kms on the
mountain bikes. It is much easier to stop and take photos when on the
mountain bikes and feels more leisurely whereas on the road bike I
feel I need to clock up some serious miles and act like a serious
cyclist. We continue to be blown away by the incredible sights we see
but we are particularly looking forward to July and the upcoming Tour
De France. We are also hoping to meet some friends from our village
at the end of July when they come over to France on holiday so we are
really looking forward to that.
