June 18, 2018
Riding into deepest Périgord.
Ah, hills! You may not like riding up hills, but they are the basic element in scenery. Today I got back to the kind of cycling that I associate with this wonderful country,with a good deal of going up and down. It didn't start quickly, though, as I was very late getting going this morning. a late breakfast compounded by a stop at the laundromat to get some clean clothes and I didn't actually leave Perigueux until after eleven o'clock. The laundromat was actually an experience in itself. I was instructed in the proper use of the machines by a tall Dutch woman of uncertain age, and a tiny French woman who was ninth years old. No more than four and a half feet tall with purple dyed hair this extraordinary lady had to stand on tiptoes to put her coins in the machine. She instructed me as though I were an infant, which to her I may once have been. Her washing was done before mine and the Dutch giant helper her get her laundry sorted into shopping bags which the old girl grabbed as she left to walk home.
Laundry done, I filled the left rear pannier with clean clothes and went on my way. The climb away from the city was uneventful except for a slow increase in the gloom of the day and a noticeable dampness in the air. When I got to Agonac I felt hungry but looking about for a restaurant I discovered that I was out of luck in that department. There was however a small grocery and I bought a baguette, some St. Nectaire cheese, an apple, and a coke and took it to the village park just across the road. Digging in the right front pannier I got out my old Laguiole and sawed off a piece of bread and cut slices of cheese to put on it. I shared a covered kiosk in the park with another picniker and we chewed away in silence.
Lunch over, I began to climb in Ernest as I headed to Brantome. About halfway there, the mist increased to the point of rain, so I stopped to put on the rain cape. In the Murphy's law way of such things I had no sooner got it on and restarted my climb than the rain quite suddenly stopped and a few patches of blue began to appear in the sky. Off with the rain cape, then and now a long coast downhill to Brantome. The main attraction of Brantome I see its very well preserved gothic abbey, now a museum and administrative offices.
There were a few other cyclotouristes at the abbey, some Germans and some Dutch people, but we didn't chat. I got a cup of coffee in a bar and admired the abbey from across the river. It's immense as these things go, and looks very well kept. I continued my ride toward Thiviers in a broad valley that was overlooked by
I reached Thiviers about four in the afternoon, and I decided to call it a day. I learned from the tourist office that there was anly one hotel in town called the Hotel de France et de Russie, or the Hotel of France and Russia. The proprietors were surprisingly an English couple. I learned from them that the Hotel had been named back in the days before the First World War when the third republic signed an alliance with the Russian empire. They had got the hotel two years ago and were still struggling with the French language so we conducted our business in English. Although the hotel has a restaurant, it does not open Monday nights. So the only alternatives were to either eat pizza from a carry-out, or go to the grocery and provide for oneself. I ascertained that I could use the microwave in the kitchen, so I chose the later. A half bottle of St.Emilion, a petite sale (lentils and sausage) , some pâte and I was set for the evening.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 828 km (514 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 2 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |