69.3km, 5hrs 32mins, 1866m total climb
Today was Sunday so nothing was open.
We packed up in record time (about 40 mins to get on the bikes) and
cycled through the town to find the Bakery. After a couple of
pain-de-raisin/chocolate each we started another day that looked like
the last. After a while though it got more interesting with the cliff
being on our side of the river, and huge overhangs, cliffs and caves
to look at. Loads of ornate houses had been built with two walls in
the rock, full sized and beautiful from a distance but tiny and
pointless close up. Always inaccessible by road.
Also, many skilfully constructed Danny
Devito-sized castles appear wherever there seems to be room for them
and someone might look. The store at the bottom of a field, a pump
house for a pond or just on the peak of a hill. I think someone found
a skill building small medieval looking buildings and decided they
could make money out of it. It doesn’t seem uncommon to have a
small, perfectly constructed 4ft high turreted and round-towered
house for the moped at the bottom of the garden, or maybe for the
chickens. This whilst 50% of the more expansive normal looking barns
in the area are decrepit and have the rafters hanging down and
nothing in them. I think there is a problem with the supply and
demand equation for tiny castles in this area. Maybe the French
government subsidises the construction of these buildings to make the
place look nice.
At one other place, we passed a bigger
house built against the cliff. It had weird signs outside that
suggested that it was some kind of museum. There were a lot of
strange artefacts strewn about the large garden, made from bits of
old machinery and driftwood to look like people wearing clothes,
operating fake machines, or riding fake vehicles. They were obviously
made to be perturbing, suggesting a kind of zombie-feel with crazy
expressions and odd postures. As we were taking some photos from the
road, somebody blew a whistle very sharply, we looked but didn’t
see anyone. Then we spotted a guy at the back of the garden just
staring at us through the bushes. He didn’t say anything and we
were not worried at all but he must have wanted us to stop taking
photos. I waved at him and smiled, but he didn’t do anything. We
left ASAP. He shouted something as rode off, sounded like 'respect'
but no idea.
We passed a small market outside a
restaurant and had a look around. We ended up spending too much
money! We bought 12 Euro of dried and peppered Filet Mingon, 5 Euro
of a dried pork sausage and half a kilo of organic fig cake for an
extortionate 9 Euro. Must say all are awesome though, especially the
filet. 69 Euro a kilo!
The campsite is very nice, totally run
by Dutch people and all the signs are in Dutch. Very nice and
friendly people. We ate in the restaurant and had a few beers. It is
still very quiet with no other tents. We ate with a Dutch couple in
the restaurant (only 4 of us in there).
Apparently it will be 20 degrees and
full sun tomorrow! Lets see.
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| Moments before we got whistled at |
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| Today's obligatory pic of Johanna propping up my bike for photos |
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| Good diving spot |
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| Inside the Dutch bar at the Dutch campsite |
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