September 5, 2014
Bressuire to Mareuil-sur-Lay: Lost in France and finding hills!
I must confess, that I did look at the train schedule last night for this next leg after my bad day. Then I remembered our horror train day, and thought better. It was just that, when we looked at the map on a route from Bressuire to Mareuil-sur-Lay, it was overwhelming with the number of roads. We stay clear of the major, high traffic roads.
This was our longest day so far, at 96.10 kilometers, and we climbed over 720 meters. It is amazing what a day makes, though, as it felt much easier than yesterday, and it was a great, but long day. Because of all the climbing, our average speed was down considerably. We left in the morning at 9:30, and didn't arrive at our hotel until about 6:45. Our last 10 kilometers was into a pretty strong headwind. The temperature was about the same as yesterday, but with some cloud cover, and a much appreciated breeze, it felt cooler.
We made quite a few wrong turns, adding extra distance, but we saw beautiful farm country, and many small, quiet villages.
When we arrived late into Mareuil-sur-Lay, we googled hotels on TripAdvisor, and only one came up. Please, please let it have a room! We cycled about 2 kilometers uphill (of course), to what turned out to be a lovely B&B. We certainly didn't relish biking back down that hill and back UP for dinner, so we asked the owners about dinner. They do not speak one word of English, but we managed to communicate, and she went shopping and made us a four course dinner, with wine. Heaven! It was so appreciated!
Tomorrow, our friend Christian is biking over here and we are going to bike back with him to his house, where we will visit for a couple of days. The visit and rest will be wonderful. Geez, I just had a thought.... maybe he will want to go biking!!! 😛🚲🚲😁
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 96 miles (154 km)
Total: 631 miles (1,015 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |