Day 7. L'Isle Jourdain to Rochechouart

Bonne Dimanche

Today was planned as a short day so that I could finish in time for lunch and avoid starvation, as I knew from bitter experience that everywhere in rural France is closed on Sunday evening. 

I rode back over the Vienne, taking the viaduct this time, where I persuaded a passing dog walker to take this photo, then followed the Vienne valley to Confolens for coffee in a busy cafe where everyone else was indulging in the usual French Sunday morning ritual of checking their lottery tickets.  

The route then crossed the Vienne on this bridge, passed through Chirac (the first of two villages on this trip that share a name with a French president) and took me to Rochechouart just before 1.00.  My hotel was very busy with Sunday lunch in full swing, but fortunately I had rung up to reserve a table for 1.30 so I had time for a quick shower before a superb 4-course lunch with half a bottle of cabernet franc from the Loire vineyards that I had cycled through a couple of days before.

After a siesta there was a chance to explore the town, now almost completely deserted. I had only heard of Rochechouart as a station on the Paris métro, but it has three claims to fame - a splendid chateau with pepperpot towers, a church with a spire almost as crooked as Chesterfield, and the site of a huge meteorite impact about 200 million years ago.

 

Distance today - 60 km.                   Distance from St Malo 566 km.