More rain up to Les Herbiers

Strong winds from the North East this time - but I will moan about that later.

I have come to the conclusion that anyone who voluntarily camps when they have the means to use a Hotel, Gite or any other form of fixed holiday accomodation are certifiable. You campers nearly had me won round yesterday, The sun was peeping out occasionally, no wind and we found what I thought was an idillic campsite.

Now we know from experience that tents provide lousy noise insulation and people are the cause of campsite noise pollution !

As mentioned yesterday, we came across this campsite with only us and another caravan so the noise pollution bit was sorted then !!!

Not a chance, we had the town clock every hour, dogs from the village shouting their mouths off, a crop scarer was going off like a cannon every 20 minutes, a couple of cockerills giving it their all and the general bird life seemed to go mad. Bit like in a party when everyone gets louder as the evening goes on.

And to top it off, the cuckoos we were euligising about during the day and how nice it was, well I would have taken an air rifle to this one which seemed to be perching on my tent giving it big licks ALL FLIPPIN NIGHT !

if the noise wasnt bad enough, the temperature dropped overnight as the north easterlies blew in so it was both loud and cold - oh what fun !!



Looks lovely eh we nearly had shadows ! shame you cant see the crop scarer, clock bongs and the birds etc and the wind that hasn't started yet

Anyway given the noise, we were up unsuprisingly early this morning and set off at 8 O'clock. Now one of the wierd things from yesterday was all the nice quaint villkages had no people and today being Sunday, it was no different. What do people do with themselves around here ?

We did hit an open shop in Vix so we stocked up as this could well be the only open establishment in the country, which it so proved. Then it was into the north east wind for the day which as you can imagine was a bit of a slog, but it least it was dry, or so we thought. By lunch time, the drizzle started which then developed into a full blown downpour. So we now had a cold north easterly and wet rain :-(

Needless to say, we didnt last very long before we diverted into a place where people might exist, and more importantly, Hotels. So into Les Herbiers we went and looked around for a while until we came across hotel Le Centre



She looks a bit grim here - thats because she is !!

And this is where we ended up !




It seems to have been given two stars once ! but the landlady did let 4 soaking wet cyclists in and leave their dripping bikes in the hallway which makes her one rank down from a patron saint ! and I even got into the room in time to watch the last half dozen laps of the Spanish Grand Prix, where, incidently they had bright sunshine - I thinks its a plot you know

Anyway, many moons ago, which was earlier this morning, we bought a load of grub which we didnt now need. Well we ate it anyway, baguette and camembert and now the hotel room is a bit whiffy and its not just damp clothes.

We did go out for some food and found a place open with real people in it so had a pizza and a crepe. I thought it was quite nice !! aaah the old ones are the best