Up fairly early to get a good start on the long journey to Limoges. Looked out the window; beautiful sunshine. Got the bike out of the underground garage ready to load her up and realised the front of the seat had worked itself loose, so out with the humungus tool roll, (now where did I put that kitchen sink?), lots of red loctite will sort that out. Reconnected the earth wire for the GPS while I was at it so that’ll save money on batteries… ho hum.
Just as I finished loading her up the rain started again… thought I was going to get away with it… nevermind. Managed to visit the less salubrious areas of Rouen thanks to the GPS being unable to find its way out of the town… unfortunately it doesn’t have any detailed info so can’t search on addresses only cities, so it’s a bit hit and miss.. well, mostly miss but makes for very interesting detours.
Finally got out of Rouen, still raining of course. Started heading for Limoges but the GPS wanted to take me to Paris, (maybe it had a hot date… actually I used to know a bar in Paris called Moustaches or something… oh sorry back to the story), so I took command and changed onto another road going towards Evreux then onto the N154 heading South. Pitched up in a little town called Nonancourt and by now the sun was shining. I turned a corner and came upon a beautiful town square..
ahhh must be time for lunch.
Lovely little café… oops don’t speak English or Irish, (well my Irish is English with a very suss Kerry accent)… oh dear have to resort to pointing and sign language, (luckily I’m quite good at that), so ended up with a delicious omelette and of course the ubiquitous frites and salad, crepes to follow with coffee…
gosh this is the life.
Also had a surprise phone call from Alfie and Anni… it was really lovely to hear from you both… thanks x
Back on the road heading down towards Chartres…
Now you remember yesterdays hailstones don’t you? Can better that… tornado!! I kid you not, I literally rode through the worst weather I have ever encountered in 25 years biking… I actually had to stop and sit in it, it was so bad. I was on my way, following the GPS, through the villages and miles of wheat fields, when on my right I spied the biggest, blackest clump of clouds, hanging only a few hundred yards off the deck and, even at that distance, I could actually see the sheets of rain falling. Oooo look at that, I thought, thank god it’s over there; at which point the road started to bend to the right. Literally within minutes I was in it… the wind was bending the trees along the side of the road and the bike was all over the place… couldn’t see a thing and the pain of the hailstones in my face was practically unbearable. After the bike started to be pushed into the oncoming traffic and I could not see anything in front of me, I decided to pull over and hope it would pass – no such luck.. wanted a few minutes and pulled off again riding very slowly with the flashers on… gosh that was scarey!! But, of course dear reader, I survived… this is such fun!!!
Now you remember yesterdays hailstones don’t you? Can better that… tornado!! I kid you not, I literally rode through the worst weather I have ever encountered in 25 years biking… I actually had to stop and sit in it, it was so bad. I was on my way, following the GPS, through the villages and miles of wheat fields, when on my right I spied the biggest, blackest clump of clouds, hanging only a few hundred yards off the deck and, even at that distance, I could actually see the sheets of rain falling. Oooo look at that, I thought, thank god it’s over there; at which point the road started to bend to the right. Literally within minutes I was in it… the wind was bending the trees along the side of the road and the bike was all over the place… couldn’t see a thing and the pain of the hailstones in my face was practically unbearable. After the bike started to be pushed into the oncoming traffic and I could not see anything in front of me, I decided to pull over and hope it would pass – no such luck.. wanted a few minutes and pulled off again riding very slowly with the flashers on… gosh that was scarey!! But, of course dear reader, I survived… this is such fun!!!
should’ve done it years ago.
Onto Chartres… beautiful town… no piccies I’m afraid as after the delicious omlette and tornado chaser I just had to find la toilette… nope there are no la toilettes in Chartres, (well I’m sure there are but I couldn’t find em) so keep going…
Who needs motorways????
Into the Loire region and at last… public loos… in a lovely little village called Valencay, with a beautiful real deal chateau, here are the pics to prove it…
And the sun did shine too…
Arrived at Chateauroux but starting to get late… still almost 100 miles to go to Limoges… shall I stop here I wonder???
Nah… keep going and take the motorway, it’ll be quicker.. HA!
Arrived at 10.30pm, exhausted… pulled off and found a Formula 1 hotel… interesting… but clean and CHEAP! hooray.
Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings…. watch this space!
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