May 2, 2023
Day 8 - Parthenay to Saint-Hilaire-la-Palud
I vowed not to go overboard on pastries and bread on this trip. This is not possible in France. For breakfast this morning, not only was there the usual croissants and pain au chocolate fresh from the local boulangerie, but the owner’s wife also baked a fresh loaf of bread and fresh loaf of something that looked like bread but was sweet like cake. I had the bread, then the cake bread and tried to stop there, but Doug was eating all the pain au chocolate and telling me how they were still warm, so I had one of those too to stop him from eating them all.
Trying to use French has been fun. But whenever I say something to someone in a restaurant or store in French, they immediately start speaking English. I mean I’m speaking French, how do they know? Doug I don’t think is very impressed by my French, but that’s okay, because Donna and I have spent the whole trip trying to get him to pronounce “merci” correctly. “mare-say” he says. No “mare-see” we counter. To try to help him remember to say “see” I tell him the pirate joke I heard at work:
Q: What is a pirate’s favorite letter?
A (in pirate voice): Arrrrrr, but I’m kind-a fond of the sea.
And now he pronounces it “marrrr-sea”.
Doug told us today that we only had about 229 feet of climbing, so we were looking forward to a longish, but easy day. The oddly precise number conveyed a degree of accuracy that was lacking as it turned out. We knocked off 229 feet in the first few miles and began to think he gave us faulty information. He recalculated and realized it was 2,229 feet. Not terrible, but what does that mean for the upcoming 2,800 foot day? Is actually 22,800?
The day started with a continuation of yesterday, nice rolling ride on country roads. The countryside looks very English to me, pastures with hedgerows and scattered trees. But the towns look very Italian with stone or stucco buildings, tile roofs and a church in the center of every village. By the time we reached Niort, we had left the hills and thing were pretty flat. We followed a river/canal for 15 miles or so, then finished with a ride across flat farmland to our small rented house for the night.
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Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 398 miles (641 km)
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