We arrived in Mansle, our friends pad to meet up with the 'barrel club' to find them still standing and able to talk. They had 2 barrels which were for later in the week, they needed to settle but John's (mine host) wine flowed freely in the evening followed by cognac. The cook , Brian did us proud with duck and all the timmings and we had a great time. It was Cognac that we were heading for next day.
Mansle Dist. 49.97km
The journey to Cognac was good apart from me nearly ending it all. It was not until the end of the day at the hotel that I realised what had happened. The manhole covers on the road were slighty depressed so that if you cycled over them the bike jolted - just like going over a pothole. It was on a sweeping left hand bend on a down hill section when I went over a manhole cover (you could say bad bike handling) there was a big crunch, my back wheel bounced and slid and I yelled as I thought I was going to take a tumble but it all setteled down and on I went. My bike felt fine, no buckles, I looked down and around and all looked good. I had not seen any debris on the road so did not know what had happened. I was at the back of the group so pedalled on the catch up. At the hotel I was taking my water bottles off and there were only 2 and I normally carry 3. My bottom bottle had dissappeared - I guess it jumped out and my back wheel went over it - being an alloy bottle it made a big crunching noice when I did this. Lucky I stayed on my bike.
Cognac was a busy town and it looks like it is dominated by Martell - 300 anniversary this year.
Cognac Dist 55.09km
Yesterday we could smell the salt on the breeze - sea gulls in the fields - and an almost flat coast plain lay ahead. We took the main road from Cognac as it was realy the only way to go. It was fine. On these trip there are certain highlites and one happened just as we were entering Royan. I do not mind being overtaken by joggers when I am labouring up hill in my 'granny' gear however I get a bit miffed when I am overtaken by walkers and this has happened on this trip but I was going to keep stum about it. But it is very rare that I overtake another cyclist but today it happened. It has only taken us just over 700km to achieve this - possibly a record as it is normally over a 1000. It was a genuine overtake , the lady was younger than us, her bike was not sqweaking and appeared in good repair and we swept past easily. Not only that but a few minutes later on the cycle path into Royan, two more -wow - 3 in one day. Fantasmagorical!!!!!!!
So here we are in Royan on the enterance to the Gironde on the north bank. Dist 66.29km and the odo reads779km.
I guess this is really the start to the new route - Atlantic to the Med across France. Some of us thought a swim in the Atlantic would be a great start (that's me) others thought just a paddle would do (that's Gilly ) the remainder thought just thinking about might be ok. It is a different type of route so we have left our camping stuff with the 'barrel men' and hope that through their alcoholic haze they remember it and it eventually arrives back in UK. We will be credit card touring from now on staying in hotels etc.. Weather is set fair for the next 5 days so we plan to catch the 0750 ferry tomorrow morning across the Gironde.
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