St Nazaire

It's Sunday morning, raining outside but slackening off so I'll be on my way soon. Route so far has been Roscoff - Carhaix - Quimperlé - Questembert - St Nazaire. This was my first night in a hotel. First night was in a unserviced Municipale and Questembert was rough camping behind the sports complex, so accomodation costs have been reasonable :-) Despite showers weather overall has been good and down here the oaks haven't shed their leaves yet. Mileage not going as well as I'd hoped, due to heavier bike, fewer hours of daylight than I could use, and having to pitch and strike and dry kit in the daytime. I may not even make it to Bordeaux unless I want to get a train back, which would add considerably to the tally.

My French has got a lot worse since the last time I was here, I can't remember most verbs and my use of cases and declination is abysmal. I'm nearly muttering out of shame! Not many cyclists out on the roads, ppl think I'm 'brave' to be doing this. Not really. Got a bit discouraged last night looking at progress so far, but wailing about it won't add many kilometres onto the total. French road engineering is far superior to the UK, all smoooooth tarmac, very little surface dressing, all the little rediggings for service ducts are smoothed over rather than left rough, the gradients are more lower, so you get 5k mild climb and then 5k gentle descents. And the drivers DO give you more room. Unfortunately, the IGN maps don't show minor roads and the signage is hit and miss as it doesn't give the road numbers on the approach signs, and only sometimes on the markers on the roundabouts or x-roads, so you have to keep the map handy rather than just memorise a series of road numbers. All this has got me in the mood to hit the road again. A bientot!