27 May, 2015

The day starts well with brilliant sunshine and just gets better with breakfast at the lock-keepers house.  The largest coffees in France are served here.

Just when we had got used to a daily diet of pretty villages and châteaux, we have a day with neither.  Today was a perfect cyclist’s day – long, flat, tarmac cycle paths though deepest rural France, with no wind at all.  Not even enough wind to blow the steam from the power station away.  This was one of the three nuclear power plants we have passed so far, could it be that the red glow of Ken’s nose is not due to the sun?

Lunch consists of two tins of sardines, three-day old bread and the emergency raisin rations.  We must sort the supplies situation soon.

We do spend some time cycling along the canal rather than the river, giving us the opportunity to see some barges and bigger boats for the first time this trip.

The sun lasts all day, we speed along effortlessly making good time; we get to a campsite early and, best of all, there is a supermarket just up the road.