Thursday, 12 October 2023
Poole
Wednesday, 11 October 2023
Camping Municipal Le Rayonnement (day 4)
We have spent most of the day preparing to return home. Drying our tent, wet from the moisture of the tree that overhung us dripping all night and the condensation inside. As it's not easy to put a tent up where we live now John gave it a good wipe over and cleaned the inner tent. Just two pairs of socks to wash this morning. Not that we needed to, more out of habit. Then a cycle to the nearby shop for lunch food for today and tomorrow's train journeys.
Before setting off we moved into our eco lodge and put our names down to attend tonight's bbq.
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We're the only English people on the campsite, could be interesting! We have also spent time discussing a possible return to southern France or Spain in a few weeks. Fingers crossed. After lunch we cycled out again. This time a practice run to the railway station to check how much time we need to allow in the morning and whether we may need to carry the bikes up or down stairs. Fortunately all the platforms are on the level. We'll be up at five, packed and gone by six. We have three trains to board throughout the day. Our first connection is at La Rochelle. It will probably be the most stressful. We have just twelve minutes to find our platform and then two minutes to board the TGV which will take us to Paris. Then an hour and twenty minutes to cycle through Paris to catch the slow train to Cherbourg arriving mid afternoon. A couple of hours to buy a bottle of wine for the Christmas table and then a short cycle to the ferry terminal. The evening is about to begin here. We just know it's going to be a later night for us than we would've liked. But hey, it's our final evening in France.
John spoke to the accordion player who will accompany tonight's meal. He is going to play an English song just for us. Embarrassing! France we will miss you so much. But not the mosquitoes here. They're as large as small house flies and real biters. Hopefully all will run smoothly tomorrow, for now we intend to eat, drink and socialise.
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Camping Municipal Le Rayonnement (day 3)
Today would probably be our last chance to get out and cycle a reasonable distance. We hadn't slept well though. Too hot, unbelievably too quiet and Angela was worried about us being able to board the fast TGV train with bikes and bags in the two minutes allowed. Tomorrow she is going to go through her bags and see if she can off load anything to lighten the load. Tonight will be our last night in the tent this trip, tomorrow morning we will move into the eco lodge opposite which will mean we do not need to deflate sleeping mats and pack up a wet tent in the dark early Thursday morning. Around twelve we pedalled off, stopping at the nearby supermarket to buy lunch before heading to the transborder (transporter) bridge to cross the estuary. There was a fifty minute wait until the service resumed after lunch, so we decided to pedal down further and take the passenger ferry across. Mistake. Ferry ceased running October 1st. So we cycled back to the transborder bridge just in time for the 2 pm crossing.
Before leaving the area we wanted to visit the nearby Atlantic coast. Even though we were here earlier in the year it just had to be done. After all we had cycled most of the 'between to seas' cycle route. The Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
Monday, 9 October 2023
Camping Municipal Le Rayonnement (day 2)
Sunday, 8 October 2023
Camping Municipal Le Rayonnement, Rochefort
As expected music from the party on the campsite and another venue nearby disturbed us until the small hours. Annoying as it is we've learnt to sleep through it if not peacefully. Around eight this morning the grinding of suitcase wheels on tarmac woke us. During our stay at Bordeaux we learnt that these youngest were here with regard to the university. Probably an open day. Around eight last night a swedish cyclist arrived. This morning with no rush as our train wasn't until three forty seven, we spent quite a while talking to him. He's fit for sixty mentioned John. Angela had already noticed. In fact he was fifty eight, but let's not split hairs. He was on his first ever long distance cycling trip to southern Portugal where his brother lived. He'd actually arrived by train from Paris the night before. We informed him about the closure of campsites which he didn't realize about. At midday we all shook hands and wished each other a safe journey. We cycled back down to the waterfront.
A fallen tree lay across the cycle path. We hoped a cyclist hadn't been passing underneath when it fell. As always there were people everywhere. Bordeaux is really cosmopolitan, and we just love it. Thankfully the cruise ships were gone opening up the view down the river. A stop to buy lunch and food for this evening, and then we sat in the shade of the trees until it was time to head to the station. After our terrible trip on the train to Toulouse last Sunday we vowed not to take the train again at the weekend.
What were we doing? As expected the train was packed. As always the other passengers didn't welcome us with our bicycles. And as always the bike space was full of suitcases. Here we go again! By the time we reached our stop at Rochefort it became a free for all to leave the train despite John telling the passengers around the doors we would need to be able to get off. In the scrum Angela's bike caught her injured knee which had been healing nicely taking off an area of new skin. There was blood everywhere! Upon our arrival at the campsite, where the young security man couldn't understand English or Angela's French and basically said, no reservation, no camping. Behave man. Fortunately a young French woman came to our rescue and translated for us. We have stayed here twice before, once earlier this year and we know you can come on with a bicycle without booking. We're not happy with our allocated pitch, but it will do for now. Tomorrow we will request to move nearer the indoor room and kitchen. Visiting the Ile de Re is off. To cycle forty miles for a couple of days just to turn round and come back to catch another train from La Rochelle doesn't seem worth it. We just want to stay in the warmth for as long as we can, and it's plenty warm enough here, so we'll stay two nights. Tomorrow we will plan the next five days. We will book a ferry from Cherbourg to Poole for Sunday. Meanwhile Angela is worried about her knee. She has cleaned it with the iodine scrub prescribed by the hospital and will continue to do so for a few days. We feel sad we only have a few days of this trip left. This morning our swedish companion spoke some wise words. ' Not exploring the world, is like opening a book and only reading the first page'. We had to agree.
Saturday, 7 October 2023
Yelloh! Village Camping, Bordeaux day 2
Oh what a night. From around four yesterday afternoon lots of young people began to arrive. We were a little concerned some of them may be placed in the lodges behind us. Fortunately not. All through the night until after two we could hear voices and the annoying dragging of suitcases on wheels passing near to our tent. To add to this motorbikes and cars could be heard racing along the roads outside the campsite. We have stayed here before at a weekend and never experienced the like. Security is in place here at the entrance all night which means it doesn't matter if you arrive late. We think the suitcase brigade were here for a exhibition or conference, possibly on tourism. But that's just a guess.
There is also a party on tonight in the Margaux suite. And somewhere in the area, as last Saturday we can hear loud bassy music. We expect another disturbed night.
We sound like a couple of right old moaners don't we? We spent the day washing and planning the next week. Trains are difficult to book and although we wanted to take one to La Rochelle tomorrow the tickets all sold out whilst we ate lunch. We are now booked on a mid afternoon train to Rochefort where we will stay overnight and then the next day cycle onto the Ile de Re after which we must take some trains to Cherbourg. The night sky is a clear inky black. We expect it to be cold. Today's temperature 28c, so cold nights are a small price to pay for beautiful days.
We're looking around for a smaller replacement for Marge, maybe something like this which we saw on the site, but an original older Land Rover Defender.
Friday, 6 October 2023
Yelloh! Village Camping, Bordeaux
Angela slept for ten hours. Surprisingly we didn't ache from yesterday's exertion. We were just over twenty miles from Bordeaux. After a relaxed start, coffee and breakfast scratched together from the food we had available, it was nearly midday before we left. First stop Aldi to buy as much food as we could carry. Food shopping in Bordeaux is expensive. Apart from a slight gradient it was all downhill, thank goodness.
We had no need to rush and stopped along the way. John felt really sick, but after a drink of Agrumes, a fizzy tropical drink and some salted snacks he felt much better. Our approach to Bordeaux took us through an out of town shopping area where luckily there was a decathlon store. One of John's SPD clip in pedals was damaged and if not attended too could cause him to have an accident. Pedals bought we cycled into central Bordeaux.