A fairly sedate 65 miles cycling day today as we eased down, like marathon runners in smelling distance of the finishing line.

Last night we were amazed to find some life in one of these quiet rural villages that we have been staying in. Musical fetes are held on mid summer's day evening and one was held in our village of Confolens. Inevitably it was raining so the event was staged inside in the village market hall. The music was surprisingly good and we both enjoyed gate crashing the fun, attired in our hi viz cycling jackets.

The weather is unseasonably poor here, wet and chilly, with floods in some regions. Television news and papers are full of weather related woes. The rain is strangely predictable, 4.00pm is deluge time, today we got a shower at 4.03. Most heavy rain is at night time, and there have been biblical storms when we are in our hotels but we have not got away scot free, we have been caught out on our bikes and we feel that we have had our fair share of rain and chilly weather. We are however undaunted by poor weather, spirits are high, the first part of our cycle through France is almost over. AB

No sun again today. Who would have thought you could travel the length of France in June without once seeing the sun (apart from day 1)
The legacy of Perigeux is still with me in the form of 10 weeping bed bug bites which are causing severe discomfort! Compo and Clegg are setting off tomorrow to join Foggy and me. Average party age will increase considerably and the cake stops/day ratio is also likely to rise. Should arrive at campsite a day early. Andy obviously will not stop cycling so he is returning to Perpignan for another lap.
Have to admit to losing the map today so navigating by the sun......if we could see it! Saw a sign for Munich earlier so may have taken a wrong turn. More tomorrow. APL