Advertisement
Published: August 31st 2008
We leave this friendly campsite to waves from various people and a “bon courage” from a lady, which I suppose roughly translates to “you must be mad”.
We stop after 11km for breakfast in La Loupe, a busy small town, and I manage to spill coffee over everything, which I blame on my changing from vari-focal to single-vision glasses. Ask directions from a strange man described by Polly as one of the Chuckle Brothers. Strange lady in floral tracksuit shuffles up to help. Which way to Brou? He points to the main road to Nogent, which might be the best route by car but is double the necessary distance. Explain we are looking for a route “a velo” (which he might have guessed from the objects of transport between our legs) to which he replies “ah yes, straight on and turn right”. This confirms what my trusty compass has told me and we are soon on the direct scenic route to Brou via St Eliph, Champrond, Combres and Fraze. This is marked by my father as his preferred route, and it is very pretty.
At Fraze we come across a magnificent chateau and take some photos before continuing to
Brou, where we are ready for a light lunch (it is after 3PM but we had a late start). Turned down everywhere (it is Sunday after all). Finally find somewhere with “ouvert” sign outside. Waitress is hugely surprised when we ask for food. There isn’t any she says. Well, could you do a sandwich I ask. She checks. Yes, that is possible. (It’s always helpful to ask precisely the right question, I have learnt). Sandwiches arrive. Drinks? Oh, you want drinks too? It all seems rather hard work but we get what we want in the end.
We head off to find the campsite located by a big lake about 2km out of town. (Parc de Loisirs). It is a large and popular site, well laid out. However anyone tempted to camp here using tentpegs would be well advised to bring a thermic lance or a Kango hammer, as the site seems to be constructed on compacted gravel covered with a layer of turf. A nice Polish family offer us the use of a hammer and Polly uses her best Polish to say thank you to the boy, who takes the wind out of her sails by answering in fluent French.
It’s Polly and Chris’s last night before catching the train tomorrow. We’ve done 275km in total and I have another 450km to go which is a bit daunting.
Off we go to find food, taking a scenic route around the end of the lake. Find nice pizza place where we have a good meal and some nice rose to celebrate. Chris and I do the headlights - tail lights thing again and we make it back safely, after taking some nice night shots over the lake.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0771s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Polly
non-member comment
Enough for us!
Hey and you forgot about the funny Polish boy opposite our camp who turned out to be French (once I'd tried speaking to him in Polish!)