St Malo to Nice

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Saturday 14th September 34 miles



Breakfast was on the terrace with Sue and Phil and there was a great choice of food, including superb home grown melon. Very impressive. Phil had been to the Boulangerie for bread and croissants and seen five deer and a fox on his way and it was only a short distance.

Then we were off again. Sue and Phil had jobs to do and were expecting Sue's daughter later in the day. As we were now off the official route we didn't have the guide book's description of the route so didn't really know what to expect. There was quite a lot of climbing today particularly earlier in the journey. Much of it was through forests so that helped to keep us in the shade. We needed to buy provisions for lunch and made it to St Saud-Lacoussiere just before midday and the shop closed at twelve thirty. (There didn't look to be any where else on route large enough for a supermarket). We then found a bench in the shade and ate lunch and watched the world go by.....well that is cars going through and two people walking. We have been through many villages where you don't see anyone. We had a long lunch break as we had plenty of time.

When we set off the first two miles or so where uphill which is hardwork after a break. Towards the end of our journey we were more out in the open on straighter flatter roads. Much of today's journey had been through the Perigord National Park an area rich in flora, including thirty different varieties of orchids.

Arriving in Brantome we could immediately see it was a very pretty place and also the most touristy place we had stayed in so far. We first went and found an ice cream shop and sat on a bench enjoying them. It was very hot by now.

The hotel all seemed locked up when we arrived so I phoned them and a lady told me the code for the door and that we could leave our bikes in the corridor. Once inside we found the key for our room. I rang her again later to get the code for the wifi.

We found a nice little restaurant to dine in later and then it was back to the hotel.

We are now in the Dordogne or Perigord area.

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