Le Mans to Biarritz

The past three days have been quick. With the pressing issue of needing to get kms in the bank, i have had to use all the available sunlight and grit to get to Biarritz by today (Sunday). It started well, the same overcast sky followed me south and the drissle continued. I hit Poitier and that is when the fun began. I have a feeling that there may have been a widespread, but little reported sign placer strike in the Vienne, Sevres, Charente and Gironde regions of France. The result is three laps of Poitiers, which is not bad for Poitiers tourism as i am now well aquianted with the historic landmarks and places of interest. The more serious setback was the Gironde bridge that was to wisk me to LaMarke. I arrived at the 'bridge' to find out that it had departed 10 minutes previously and was now floating towards LaMarke, not to return until 4.30. That would normally have been ok if it was not 11.10 on Saturday and the only alternative was to cycle an additional 30 kms back East, and then navigate through Bordeaux without a city map! The final masterstroke was to sign the tiny villages South West of Bordeaux as towns, leaving me to cycle an additional 40 kms in the dark through the national park looking for a bed, which by the way i am told is very beautiful but at night in the fog it looks very similar to lots of places.

However, the route did throw up some spectacular sights. The vines in and around Cognac were turning pink, the Castle at Jonzac was a welcome suprise, and the area near St Jean D'Angély was more reminicent of late summer with people sitting outside drinking and eating until late into the night with no more than a jumper being required.

Today took me down the 'route des lac' past Mimizan, before i hit the very familiar surf spots of Hossegor, Capbreton and of course the beautiful Biarritz. However the surf was onshore, and i heard the words that every surfer has heard a million times, 'you should have been here yesterday it was really firing... etc'.  The route was fantastic as it was flat, enabling me to travel at 20 mph for almost the entire day. So hoping that my Spanish route west of Madrid will deliver more of that.

So now i am with my friends Guy and Vanessa and looking forward to supper and ready to take on the challenge that Spain brings, and hoping that someone can email me a summary of the rugby as I didn't have time to watch it!

James