Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in Cubnezais, in the exact spot where he spent a night in March last year.
Weather: Sunny. Frosty start but as we drove south it warmed up considerably, peaking at 14 degrees.
There was frost on the grass as we took a pre-sunrise turn around Villedômer before we hit the road this morning, and the clear sky promised a fine day.
I'm pretty sure this is the same snap as I took the last twice we were in Villedômer, although perhaps on one of those occasions the sun was up when I did so.
Thus we drove south with the sun on Bertie's vast windscreen, warming us nicely. The day passed off almost as I predicted yesterday, except that it turned out there wasn't as much driving as I'd thought. As such, we only had one break (elevenses and lunch combined), at the same rest stop alongside the N10 as we used previously. This seemed like a coincidence, until further driving reminded me that rest stops are very few and far between on the N10. The expectation is that if you want any services or otherwise to stop, you pull off the no-stopping-except-in-emergency dual carriageway into one of the adjacent towns or villages.
Having used two small sections of toll motorway to lop chunks of time off our journey*, we arrived in Cubnezais before 3pm.
These were last year's cake purchases in Cubnezais. Our plans to purchase the same again this year were thwarted.
On our first foray out after arrival, we were too early for the boulangerie to have re-opened for its afternoon session, so we headed back out again later with our minds set on the very same goodies we'd bought there last year. Oh noes! There must have been a rush on this morning; their cake cabinet was bare! Suddenly it became clear that our failure to buy cakes in Villedômer yesterday afternoon was a woeful omission. Let's hope we happen to drive past a boulangerie with convenient parking nearby before we leave France tomorrow afternoon.
(*Our road atlas is annotated with many comments about route choices (free roads versus the adjacent Pèages) around towns complete with times, distances and costs gleaned from previous trips; we both followed my own scrawled advice and tried out new options today. The total cost of a few cents over €5 was well worthwhile not just for the time saving but for avoiding the tedium of dozens of roundabouts, traffic lights and speed limit changes.)
Weather: Sunny. Frosty start but as we drove south it warmed up considerably, peaking at 14 degrees.
There was frost on the grass as we took a pre-sunrise turn around Villedômer before we hit the road this morning, and the clear sky promised a fine day.
Thus we drove south with the sun on Bertie's vast windscreen, warming us nicely. The day passed off almost as I predicted yesterday, except that it turned out there wasn't as much driving as I'd thought. As such, we only had one break (elevenses and lunch combined), at the same rest stop alongside the N10 as we used previously. This seemed like a coincidence, until further driving reminded me that rest stops are very few and far between on the N10. The expectation is that if you want any services or otherwise to stop, you pull off the no-stopping-except-in-emergency dual carriageway into one of the adjacent towns or villages.
Having used two small sections of toll motorway to lop chunks of time off our journey*, we arrived in Cubnezais before 3pm.
On our first foray out after arrival, we were too early for the boulangerie to have re-opened for its afternoon session, so we headed back out again later with our minds set on the very same goodies we'd bought there last year. Oh noes! There must have been a rush on this morning; their cake cabinet was bare! Suddenly it became clear that our failure to buy cakes in Villedômer yesterday afternoon was a woeful omission. Let's hope we happen to drive past a boulangerie with convenient parking nearby before we leave France tomorrow afternoon.
(*Our road atlas is annotated with many comments about route choices (free roads versus the adjacent Pèages) around towns complete with times, distances and costs gleaned from previous trips; we both followed my own scrawled advice and tried out new options today. The total cost of a few cents over €5 was well worthwhile not just for the time saving but for avoiding the tedium of dozens of roundabouts, traffic lights and speed limit changes.)
Amused to read that cakes are high on the priority list.
ReplyDeleteI was searching my photos uploaded to Facebook recently, looking for something in particular, and couldn't help but notice that almost every photo on there is of food (mainly cakes), yarn (knitting and crochet) and trig points/summits. A good reflection of my obsessions in life, I think.
DeleteAlas, despite the priority given to cakes, we left France without managing to buy any. We'll have to buy double when we drive back through in April!
That should have been 'or trig points' - I'm not sure I've yet managed a cakey photo at a trig point whilst showing off my knitting.
Delete