Hit the road about 9am. Bit cooler than of late, though forecast was for 27 after lunch. Roads different to what we've been used to last couple of days too. A lot more small country ones, not bad condition by any means but not billiard table smooth either.
The French countryside in this part of the world is covered in fields of sunflowers. They are spectacular bursts of yellow and can stretch for miles. I had thought that the fields were just scattered with seeds but no, you can definitely see that they have been planted in defined rows, very regimented. They look fantastic.
Twice today Grizzly has had to relieve himself at roadside. The second time we'd stopped in a layby. There was a car further down. Grizzly had gone over to the bin and decided he needed to unload more of the coffees he'd had for breakfast. Just as he whipped the old chap out, the guy from the car, whom Grizzly thought was having a nap, arrived to put something in the bin! Just as well Grizzly didn't spin round in surprise. 🤣
There were no planned stops today, apart from the fuel stop. When we got there, we didn't fancy the price, so located a Leclerc supermarket one, a few kms further on. This is a game we've played the last couple of days. There wasn't much else of note today, least not till a bit later but I'll come on to that. The fuel was €2.14 but at Leclerc it was only €1.97, so that's a saving for me of £1.90.
Just across from the Leclerc was a McDs, so we popped in for some lunch. Whilst in there, I got a message from tomorrow's B&B, saying they'd had a recent guest go down with covid and that, though they had tested negative, they thought we should know and that if we wanted to cancel, we could. We discussed it and both agreed it didn't make sense to put ourselves in a position where we could possibly contract it, so we decided to cancel. They were understanding, saying they would probably do the same in our shoes. A quick check on Booking.com gave only 2 options. I chose an IBIS, mainly because of the on site parking. The other place said public parking nearby. So we are now staying just on the outskirts of Albert, instead of a few miles up the road. It does mean we've lost our 3 course end of tour dinner now though. McDs is over the road from the IBIS, I wonder what 3 courses we could get there! 🤔
As predicted, Ginny clocked the 26k this morning. We were alone on a country lane at the time, so I stopped to record the event. My alarm was going anyway, so I had to turn that off.
We arrived at our hotel in Senlis about 4pm, after another good day's riding. Grizzly too, is a fan of riding in France, especially when the weather is so good. It took a little while to warm up today but it reached 25 late on.
Eating options were limited. McDs right next door, eat in or at the Courtepaille about 100m away. McDs was out and Courtepaille more expensive than eating in, so we stayed put. I went for a salad tonight, chicken caesar.
Obviously we had beers. A wasp made the fatal error of coming between Grizzly and his pint, diving in with abandon. Result, string of profanities and a dead wasp.
This could be Grizzly's mantra I reckon.
Tomorrow we are heading for Albert in the heart of the Somme. Our POIs, of which there are 5, will all be related to that region and World War 1.
Just 2 more sleeps left.
They use a seed drill to plant seeds...
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_drill