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Travelogue
It poured down in the night! Luckily we stayed dry in our tent but even with ear plugs wedged deep in ears, it was noisy.
In the morning we ate bananas for a quick breakfast and hit the road.
Today's cycling had its ups and downs.
It began with up and up and up (i.e. ups)! A long climb on a rural road through woodland and farmland. Pretty but hard work.
The weather was now perfect. Bright sunshine. Clear light. Slightly chilly. It felt like Spring.
Luckily we spied a cafe by the road after not too many km and stopped for 2nd breakfast. This took the form of coffee and mon dieu to die for cake which seemed to combine nuts with chocolate and sea salt. It was amazing.
The place had a great view of a limestone outcrop. The woman that served us spoke perfect English and had lived in the UK for 8 years. We sympathised but she insisted she'd loved it :-)
After more climbing, we eventually switched to another cycle route created from a former railway. This part of the route was shady and easy.
It no longer felt like Spring. If anything it was like Autumn. Like the UK, France has been experiencing drought conditions. This has affected the trees, especially oak trees. Leaves are shrivelled or brown and crunchy and falling to the ground. This is a survival strategy trees use when starved of water.
The official Velofrancette route includes a detour into a town called Flers. Why not, we thought. It must be lovely to warrant a detour.
It isn't. It's not awful but we didn't love the place. We had cold drinks at a cafe restaurant and then cycled out of Flers.
After a while on roads, once again we were on an old railway.
Our next detour and stop was in Domfront. It was quite a climb up to the medieval town but worth it. We had delicious salmon and leek quiches and a cookie each for lunch and then hit Carrefour for groceries.
We cycled another 15 km and detoured off the official route to find our campsite. We arrived at the point we'd marked on the map but the place didn't exactly look like a campsite. It looked more like an eatery where the rubbish hadn't been collected for weeks. And there was no sign of life. We'd seen one tent and a few cabins from the road but couldn't see them now and there were no people anywhere.
We checked the website. It had a directions feature that used Google Maps. We tried it and this indicated we were a few minutes away. So we cycled further up the road into the nearest town and to the point shown on Google Maps. There was a house there but no campsite there or nearby. We asked a local. She'd never heard of a campsite nearby.
Puzzled, we reviewed the information again and decided that despite Google Maps showing the location as where we were standing, it seemed the first place we'd stopped at was where we should be.
We cycled back. This time a man came out of one of the cabins. This was the place. He had our reservation. Result!
It's a slightly weird place and seems like a work in progress. There's lots of space to camp by a lake, which is nice. But there are sites of barbecues that have been held and beer bottles and other debris hasn't been cleared up. The guy's dog seems to have complete freedom to use the place as a toilet as well and nobody ever cleans up.
There's one toilet for humans. It has a piece of string but no lock in the door. Same with the only shower.
But, we're fine and have a nice meal of camping mush ahead of us. And tomorrow's another day.
Photos
...when I have WiFi!
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