Day 15- Niort to La Rochelle- 84 kms

28 Jun

Feeling better today!!!!

Ready for the challenge ahead as I go in to the 3rd week of the break in France

The weather today was forecast to be hot so we got on the road as soon as we could at about 7 40 am. The wind once again was favourable being almost behind us for most of the day

The day was my turn to navigate and we were out of Niort on about 10 minutes... a far cry from the hour that it has taken us in Day’s previously

So we made good time to a coffee break in a small town called Saint Pierre d’Amelie where there was no coffee shop but the ladies working in the shire office provided me with a coffee and Chris with water. At this stop Chris was working the emails regarding the set up for his new bike based on conversations we were having along the way

Anyway the ladies were terrific and I made short work of the coffee....

On our way again to the next big town on our route called Surgeres. We stopped here for a cool drink and cakes and noticed a rather large riding group who had just finished their ride. As Chris did not have a bike water bottle ( he was a rather large bottle of water by our hosts in Niort) we thought we should ask our way to the nearest bike shop or supermarket to buy a bottle. Anyone of the group, Trevor, offyto give Chris a bottle from his home. We followed Trevor to his houses had a good chat about our travels and he made a few recommendations for the days ahead which may see us traveling to Spain on the Atlantic side and then ride through part of the Pyrenees and climb one or two of the mountains there including Tourmalat

Seems that this is better and quieter than going through to the Mediterranean Sea

We said our thank you and arvoir to Trevor and made our way to Chatelaillon-Plage which is on the Atlantic coast

Along the way we passed through farms where they were harvesting their crops

At Chatelaillon-Plage we stopped for a lunch... an omelette... and a drink and then attempted to locate Chris’s French teacher’s mum who owns a florist shop....unfortunately she was out for the day and the shop was shut ... so onwards to La Rochelle

The route north along the coast took us past some very nice holiday homes and hotels as it seems this is a very popular place for seaside holidays and the food is good with mussels and oysters being farmed locally

Finally we arrived at the hotel in La Rochelle at about 3.15 pm and collapsed in to the swimming pool

We had a great day of riding today after the drama of yesterday!!!

The ladies at Saint Pierre d’Amelie