Where's Colin? He's at a free aire, with tap and waste point, at 45°34'51"N, 0°2'40"E.
Considering our proximity to the church last night, I was pleased that the hourly chimes only disturbed my sleep twice, or three times if you count the final alarm call at 7am, when they didn't just chime the hour but went into a more frantic 'you really must wake up now' mode of clanging. We may have woken, but there was no sudden leaping out of bed; after yesterday's long day, a lie-in was in order.
Even so, we didn't intend to be quite as late away as we were, and by the time we'd done two rounds of a supermarket so huge that it was almost a city (a list would have avoided needing to go back in a second time!) and filled up Colin with diesel (100.5c per litre – a whole cent higher than it was when I walked past yesterday evening), it was nearly eleven o'clock.
It was another driving day today and Mick took the first shift (he takes most shifts, because he prefers for me to navigate), which took us past Tours. It was on our approach to the city that I made the executive decision, in my position as navigator, that we were going to save ourselves all of the stopping and starting in going around the city by splashing some cash on a short section of toll road. Twenty-three kilometres later and with my pocket €3.50 lighter, it was back off the motorway and back onto a 'normal' road.
With hindsight, we should have splashed more cash, as the D910 between Tours and Poitiers was incredibly tiresome, and I can say that first-hand, as I was driving for that section. With either traffic lights or roundabouts every couple of minutes (sometimes much more frequently) and with speed limits changing almost as often, it was far harder work than driving should be. It was with joy that we got onto the N10 with the SatNav telling us we were staying on that motorway-esque road for the next 75km.
We didn't get that far. Our ETA at the destination I'd programmed into the SatNav this morning was 5.20pm. Wanting to arrive somewhere with enough daylight left for at least a cursory look around, I had another search once Mick had taken over the wheel, and redirected us to the Aire de Camping Car where we are currently located, just a very short amble outside of the village of Roullet Saint Estephe (which should have an accent grave over the second e of Estephe, but I can't work out how to insert one). Unlike last night, when we were alone in our substantially-sized car park, this Aire already had three vans present when we arrived and there's at least double that as I type.
So, another load of witter there with even less to tell than yesterday. I'm sure we will do something interesting sometime soon – once we get the bulk of the driving done and start exploring. Hopefully by then we'll be somewhere with better weather too – very heavy showers and the odd flash of lightning has been the order of the day today, with some bright sunshine blinding us in its reflection off the wet roads – oh, and (as Mick now reminds me) one area of hailstones laying deep enough to narrow the road down to a single lane.
Today's photo is of the church in Roullet, which is far enough away from us that whilst its bells are audible, they hopefully won't be disturbing.
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