An adorable town - 100%

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Geo: 46.3093, 3.28787

For the 2nd time this trip, we were able to get a fresh baguette for breakfast at a nearby boulangerie. Today's plan was to go into Vierzon in hopes of finding a laundry, and a post office. I had looked up online, and found the location of what I thought was one Laundromat, but we decided to walk around just a little in the town center, and see if there was another one that wasn't listed online. We didn't find one, but did come across the post office, where the woman who first asked if we needed help, called over a very nice man who spoke a little English. We worked out that the prepaid box would be cheaper to send (though at €46, that's a relative term) than if we had our own box (which we didn't at that point). He and the 2 gals who were helping us took great delight in seeing the schwag from the Tour, and the 2 women picked up a couple of words in English. All in all, it was a very pleasant experience, and I think we all felt like we learned a tiny something.

With our dirty clothes stuffed into Dejo's backpack, we headed off in the direction that Google maps said the Laundromat was. To our delight, Google maps was right. The woman who ran the place helped us figure out how to get this done (clothes in, detergent in, pay the machine across the room, using the right machine number, go back and hit "Start"😉. We struggled through picking up the relevant bits of info from the special Tour de France edition of France's equivalent of Sports Illustrated, and half an hour later, we moved our laundry to the dryer for a high-heat treatment. We managed to get everything folded fairly neatly, and have it stay so until we got back to the camper. The whole housekeeping thing took less time than we anticipated, so we were on our way to our destination, Saint Pourcain sur Sioule.

We'd had an aire picked out from the book that looked great – electricity, and near to town. I forget that they print more than one copy of these books.

The aire was full, but I could swear I saw at least one campervan in there, leaving. I saw a security guard or (as it turned out) policeman walking out of the gate, so I jumped out to ask if there was a place available. Before I could get my question out, he was giving me instructions, which I generally interpreted to be, “Yes, we're taking you elsewhere, follow these people”. I hopped into the van, and told Dejo “Follow that van” (or something along those lines). We had a small convoy of caravans going (though I don't think any of us knew where), so when the policeman and the 1st 3 vans made it through an intersection in town, but not us or the 2 or 3 vans behind us, I jumped into action. You see, I was wearing my long-sleeved flourescent-yellow workout shirt (don't recall why), but since I felt pretty visible, I jumped into the intersection (which was moving pretty slowly – things were busy through town). I thrust my hand out to oncoming traffic, gave them the “Sorry – just 1 minute, please” sign, and waved Dejo and the other vans through before jumping into our slowly-moving van. We had lost sight of the others, but guessed right at the fork in the road, and saw them ahead. They were putting overflow campers in a biiiiig field, where we guessed that they were also putting regular parking tomorrow.

We got settled, and watched the remainder of the day's stage on the iPad, before a quick catnap. Then we grabbed the bikes for a look around town and some dinner. There was a bike path from this field, so we took that, and the first thing we passed as we came into town was a campsite. A commercial site, with electricity, and showers and good stuff like that. We inquired as to availability and price, and €13 seemed like a reasonable rate. She asked something about the Tour de France. I presumed she was asking if we were here to watch it, to which I tried to answer Yes. She was saying something about hours, and I was thinking that they wanted us out of here not too long after the Tour. I said we'd be watching the depart, and then heading out – maybe 2:00. Dejo went back to retrieve the camper, and we settled in to our new digs.

THEN we grabbed the bikes (again) and headed into town to continue looking around. What an adorable town! Just the sort of place you imagine, when you think “cute little French town”. After biking up, down and all around (and finding the RadioShack mechanical bus and watching the detailed operation there for a while, we decided on a restaurant on a side street for dinner.

A large group was just rearranging tables for themselves as we got there. We realized they were Australians, and Dejo said, “Wouldn't it be funny if that was the group of Aussies from Montpellier?” Yes, that would be funny, but it's n…….Wait. That older man. And that girl. And that woman. Holy cow, it's them!!! And yes, they were still obnoxious. You'd think, after what I know was at least a week in France (probably longer), that you'd at least start saying “Merci” instead of “Thank you”. But not these guys. Not a single time in their entire dinner experience, did they attempt a single word of French. When they saw us using one of our iPhone apps to translate the menu, they commented on what a good idea that was. Well, so are the phrase books you seem to have in your hands, I thought.

So, we sat there, being a little smug in knowing that we were at least attempting some French. I know I was doing a pretty solid job of butchering it, but I was trying. The dinner was tasty, the beer, exceptionally yummy, and the entertainment free. 😊

We took a leisurely walk back to the campsite, finding a pathway under the main bridge, and happening across a cool sculpture saluting the Tour. Of all the towns we've visited so far, Saint Pourcain was by far the most spirited about the Tour, which really enhanced our enjoyment of the town.

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Photos

A little planning goes a long way
Pam, scoping out the road atlas before leaving Vierzon

The bikes get a LOT of TLC....
....every day