I'm in France!

Day 2 - 449km (total 795km)

Bang bang bang! ... Mesdames et monsieurs!.....

A rather rude awaking at 4am from my gentle slumber as the cabin steward proceeded along the corridor waking everyone up .... A quick rush to get all the clobber on followed by a dash to the stairs leading down to the boat deck - where of course I then had to queue for an hour until they let us down - lesson learned, there's no need to rush!

Off the boat in the cool darkness, I headed south, deciding against using the toll roads to enjoy France's rural scenery. After an hour's riding in the pitch black, I realised that what had initially seemed a pleasant fresh cool was actually really cold. I began shivering a little, not helped of course by my vented jacket, gloves & trousers. I did consider stopping & putting more suitable clothing on, but decided to carry on as the sun would be up soon & surely things would warm up.

2 hours riding, sun's up, I'm still shivering & the fuel light comes on - 'ok good, now I have to stop for petrol & I can get a hot coffee'.

Wrong! .... I had'nt realised that at 7am on a Sunday, most fuel stations are closed and those that are open have no other facilities - maybe the toll roads would have been a better choice to this point.

Anyway by 10am it was getting warmer & I saw a nice looking village on a hill, so went up for a look.

Lo & behold it also had a little coffee shop ... Sorted!

In my best schoolboy french I ordered a coffee with milk. Of course its a long time since I was a schoolboy & so not surprising really that the French language must have changed (thats my excuse anyway). So when the waiter rturned with 3 black coffee's & a slightly puzzled expression, I should not have been surprised.

We finally settled on two black coffee's and a pot of cream.

Suitably cafinated, refuelled and rested I hit the road again passing through a few more nice villages, one with a lovely chateau ...

Finally in the early afternoon, I arrived at my first overnight stop - chez Ian & Anne.

Had a lovely afternoon & evening with Ian & Anne, Paul & Lindsey and John & Elaine - so no language problems here.

Also met Ian's pet beetle Geoffrey!