events

I think at this point we'd already taken the wrong road again. We were hoping to join the road at Mimillon where we'd mistakenly turned left - we were thinking this would take us to the same point had we turned right.We cycled for about 30minutes thinking we were getting quite close only to find we weren't. It was very pretty but Pips was getting a bit tired and it was a bit demoralising for her.Then the weather turned a bit thundery and although it didn't rain on us there was forked lightening on the horizon. I found that I could push Pips a little on the hills, it was quite fun and made it a bit easier.My goodness it was nice though to get back to the campsite at Bonneval - we'd done about 48km in the end. The nice man at the campsite, in spite of it being his afternoon off, cooked us omelette and frites with a salad and a Leffe beer. God it was good, one of the best meals we had.

The day turned a bit rainy so we parked the bikes and took advantage of having the car again - Pips fancied going to Illiers Combray - site of Proust's aunt's house.The following day it was due to rain and we decided to hot foot it south. I'd read about the Lot and Célé valley and really fancied going there.We decided to take the long way around and went via Tours and Chenenceaux. We had lunch in Chenenceaux, a very nice lunch it was too - crepes for Pips and Moule Frite for me - but there were too many tourists so we pressed on. It took about 6 more hours but it was worth it.A small altercation with the tourist office later we'd found a nice hotel: Les Bains just by the side of the river in the centre of town, and not too expensive either at €49.

We left the car in what looked like quite a nice campsite in Camboulit: we were going to cycle very slowly and not very far down the Célé valley camping as we went. This map shows the general position of the route, click to see the route part in a bit more detail.

It was, what a surprise, a quiet little lane, but it was a bit overcast, though Pips alway's starts the day wearing her fleece.