Sunday 10 June Chauvigny 76km Total 596
Loudun to Chauvigny
At the moment we’re sticking to our plan of cycling 2 days, one day off, cycle 2 days and 2 days off. This is a weekly cycle (as it were) Today we find somewhere to stop for 2 days. We are away before 7 in thick mist and travel 35 kilometres all in the mist before breakfast.
I found it a bit frustrating not being able to see. The mist gradually rises after breakfast (the usual croissants and coffee in a bar) to reveal a green and verdant agricultural countryside. At a small village called Bonne, beside a quiet bridge over the River Vienne, there is a mass pique nique of cyclists, maybe 1,000 all together. We stop to watch.
There were many cyclists heading towards the gathering as we continued, and all sent friendly greetings and waved. Arrive at Chauvigny tired and hungry to find that no supermarkets or shops are open. So for supper we have what we’ve been eating all day, croissants and bread. Mint tea. Chauvigny is an interesting hilltop town and the municipal campsite very pleasant with daisied grass and trees all over. Put the tent in a clearing between a lot of rustling trees.
Monday June 11
Rest Day Chauvigny France 0km total 596km
We lie in – it’s a rest day, a clear hot day . I drop a contact lens in the grass and move away before I find it so it could have been anywhere. In the museum there are arrow heads, gourds, head-dresses, bottles, whilst in the park there are deer living in the gravel with doves and pigeons.
Chauvigny is located 20 miles east of Poitiers on the river Vienne and has 4 castles located adjacent to each other. Building stone was so readily available that new castles were built without reusing the stone of earlier castles.
not at home 