France - Thouars to Brive-la-Gaillarde

Day 5 - Thouars to Brive-la-Gaillarde

I woke up when it was still dark and it looked like it had stopped raining overnight, but the sound of rain hammering onto the windows soon put paid to that hope. We got up at 7am, breakfasted at 8am and were under way by 9.30.am. We were hoping to call in to a Le Clerc store to get some new ear-phones for my iPod - mine were broken - and a tubiflex bandage to support my left elbow. We rode off to our previous night's destination - Parthenay and found a huge Le Clerc - it was closed apart from the filling station, which was automatic. I asked a van driver if the town was en-fete and he looked at me as if I was stupid, which I was. It was the 1st of May - a national holiday and virtually everything in France was shut for the day.

Having given up on the Le Clerc idea we pressed on to get some miles in. The rain gradually eased off and by 11.30 it was bright and sunny. I tried out riding in my cheapo Aldi summer gloves using the heated grips and it worked really well, well done for the tip Eddy! I also tried out his advice on keeping the bike in its power band for corners and the difference it made was incredible. The bike just felt rock-steady and you could feel the tyres working, gripping the road. No wonder other bikers zoomed past me on corners. I'd been handicapping myself seriously. The only down-side was saying goodbye to 50 mpg, I was lucky to see 40-45mpg, still I could do at least 200 miles on a tank of gas.

We stopped for a coffee in a sports bar in some little place in or near Confelons and took off our wet weather gear. Apart from the cafe, the only things open were a couple of Patisseries, so we bought some pastries and a couple of apples for lunch as it seemed unlikely we would find somewhere open for lunch on May Day. We rode on for a few miles and stopped to eat in a little village where the entire population was ensconced in the local bar for a celebration lunch. France and its roads were deserted.

The first few miles after lunch were on long straight contry roads that just rolled up and down. Badger found an unclassified road and we found ourselves on a very bumpy road with no white lines. It was fun but slowed us down a bit so we got back onto the main road somewhere around St Junien and came into Brive on a very fast and windy road that went through Objat. It felt like we were in the Dordogne - fast flowing rivers with dramatic chateuax perched above them.

By the time we got to Brive it after 4pm and it felt like we had finally shaken off the northern weather, the sun was shining and everyone was clad in summer clothes, whilst we sweltered in our bike gear. Eddy managed to locate the tourist office and we got rooms in a modern-ish 3 star place overlooking the market square, where we left the bikes overnight. We got changed and headed off to find a bar, luckily for us there was a modern sports bar / restaurant just round the corner. We had a couple of celebratory wheat beers and set off to explore Brive and find a decent restaurant. Badger wanted to check out the local railway station architecture. Claire and I had taken the car on an overnight sleeper from Calais when the girls were small and all I could remember was a pretty non-descript platform, so more in hope than expectation we set off up the hill to the station, which was - of course - rather impressive, if you are into railway stations, which Badger is. We had a wander round the station and platforms, a quick beer then off to find an eating place.

The Bikes in Brive Market Square

The lighthouse-like building is the tourist office, seems to be a theme in France. The hotel on the left is the Quercy where we were staying.

A Very Impressive Library in the Square

A Happy Badger at the Station

To put it simply Brive was closed for the day. Apart from a few kebab shops and an Indian the only other restaurant open was a very haute-bourgeois hotel restaurant, who probably would not have let us in anyway. So back to the sports bar. The food was OK and filled a gap, but so far we were 0 for 2 in the food stakes. It didn't help that I ordered Fegatini and instead of the beautiful spicy chicken livers I was expecting ended up with some fairly bland pasta. I guess it serves me right for ordering Italian in France. So time for bed.

Day Summary

Day	5
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	900 approx.

Health

Pretty much the same as the preious day - all fine except my left elbow and neck. Although strangely my elbow felt better as the day progressed, perhaps the sun helped.