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Tuesday 16th June 2015 Dange St Romain to Poitiers Today was the 11th day of my trip, a week and a half which I have found to be the traditional low point of these three week outings. Despite being fairly self-sufficient and ok with my own company at this point a sense of loneliness can descend on one, especially in a big city such as Poitiers. Of course there are fleeting contacts with people along the way but the downside of that is that most of them want some money off you and you start to miss the freely-given smiles of your loved ones. Still enough of all that, pull yourself together, man, and remember you're a Thomas, eh. OK.
Well I must be over halfway now - at least I'm on the lower half of the paper map of France I brought with me, and the 434 French miles I was up to by the end of today's leg, even if it does include a few mistaken diversions, is more than half of my estimated total of 790 from Calais to Narbonne (as calculated by the route planner). So, all downhill from now on!
Today had started with a modest, rather jammy breakfast at the Logis. The weather had improved and was very pleasant for cycling with enough cloud cover from time to time to stop me burning. It was only a short hop to Poitiers, along the easy-riding, rolling roads that I had become used to and I was there by 13:00 without even trying to hurry.
I soon found a hotel - the Continental - situated near the railway station. 62 euros plus 9 euros for petit dejeuner. After a shower and change out of the cycling gear I set off for a walk round Poitiers. It's another big city, maybe not as huge as Tours but still big. I found my way to the main square in front of the town hall, the latter being an impressively large pile with the noble sentiments 'Liberte. Egalite, Fraternite' emblazoned above its front windows.
I was feeling a bit hungry as I'd been virtually skipping lunch the last few days so I looked around for something to eat. There was nothing but cows, pigs and pizza. I walked round the square, up a street and back to the square without success. 'They'll do me an omelette', I thought and sat down at one of the many pavement cafes lining the square. No they won't, the bearded trendy youth assured me, in French, when he came to take my order. In desperation I resorted to ordering a pizza and when it came it was truly, abysmally awful. Awful. Horrible. And I had to pay 8 euros for it (£6)!
Disgruntled I left the square and with the help of the map given to me by the hotel receptionist I made my way to the cathedral. Unusually it didn't seem to be the centre of things - that was the town hall, the 'Hotel de Ville' back in the square. When I came to the cathedral the frontage was blocked off by workmen doing repairs to the road and also to the cathedral. Nevertheless I was able to take a few photos and go inside for a look round. Once again it was the familiar massive stone edifice, huge, soaring solid stone pillars, the result of vast amounts of effort and resources. Enormous empty tributes to the conviction that there must be something greater than us. What if there isn't?
That evening I again walked into the centre to find something to eat. All I could find this time was a place offering 'gourmet burgers', one of which, it promised, was vegetarian. It was ghastly, absolutely covered in some pale sauce bursting out of the sides like lava from a volcano, making the white bun soggy and horrible. The frites were ok and the beer. The coffee when it came was black and so tiny a teaspoon would have held all the liquid. Ah well, it's a foreign land, lad. Bike computer: 32 miles GPS: 34 miles noted then I inadvertently cleared it down English miles: 117.8 French miles: 434.2 | |||||||||
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