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Thursday 18th June 2015 Verteuil Sur Charente to Angoulême I was tired today, no energy, so it was just as well the day's ride was only 29 miles - it seemed hard enough doing that much. I think it was partly accumulated tiredness and partly poor nutrition, missing lunches and not having much good stuff to eat at night. Last night's meal had been fine enough but the previous day's dreadful pizza and veggy-burger were definitely lacking something. Anyway I set off about 9.00 and maybe it was the weariness but there seemed to be a few more hills to climb today. Not big hills but they were present nonetheless in their easy, rolling nature. Even easy as they were the bottom ring was quickly resorted to - that's what it's there for after all.
The weather was fine blue skies to start off then later some light cloud cover appeared to keep the sun off. At Nitrat I got barked at by a mad dog who then suddenly leapt up, totally unchained, onto the top of the wall of its garden / compound and continued glaring and barking at me. That was a bit alarming as nothing now separated me from the razor-sharp fangs of the crazed monster so an adrenalin-fuelled surge took me past there at an accelerated rate. I carried on and was cycling along in some remote, unpopulated spot when I decided to turn into a side track to relieve the pressures of nature on my bladder. Then on returning to the road I trundled the bike over some brambles so thought I'd better check the tyres for thorns. As I was doing so one of the rather annoying high-revving mopeds came along the otherwise deserted road and to my surprise the young rider actually stopped to see if I was OK. Very nice of him.
I saw several raptors as I went along, some sort of harrier, I think, but nothing further happened of note and I finally rode into Angouleme at about 12.15. It seemed a bit of a 'big-town' dump at first sight. Looking for a hotel I came across the IBIS Budget Hotel and got fixed up there for 53 euros plus 6 euros for petit dejeuner. The place was basic in the extreme - more like a prison cell than a hotel room and I flooded the floor when I had a shower and didn't notice that the shower curtain had slipped outside the lip of the shower tray. There was no hair-drier either so I couldn't wash much laundry. I had a bit of a snooze and at 7.00 went out to look for something to eat.
The town centre of Angoulême was a bit better than the approaches had led me to expect. There's a fine town hall building, pedestrianised centre and an area with lots of restaurants although not many offering a vegetarian choice. I eventually passed one offering a vegetarian galette (pancake) but then just past that I came upon an Italian, the 'Sicilia', and had a word with the nice, pierced waitress, a sort of Jessie J lookalike. Very friendly she was. I spoke French and she replied in the same language then chucked a few words of English into the mix so I did too - a nice mish-mash of communication. I ended up having spaghetti Napoli, which turned up very promptly, half a litre of some strongish beer and a fairly poor bash at a Tiramisu. Still it all went down fairly well and at least I didn't have to sit around like a prune for ages waiting for it. I ordered and a few minutes later I was eating. Just as it should be - well when you're on your own anyway.
Back at the IBIS the TV appeared to be limited to just the one channel - ho hum, I supposed that's what they meant by budget hotel. Actually I did find out how to change channels eventually. It was a noisy night with some idiot shouting at the top of his voice outside in the street in the middle of the night. In the morning I shaved with just a splash of water as the sink in the bathroom had no plug ('budget hotel') and the water came out of the tap in a spray whose jets bounced off the ceramic basin and all over the place. Annoying. Overall I wouldn't be sad to leave Angoulême behind. And will try to avoid the IBIS Budget brand hotels in future. Bike computer: 29.1 miles GPS: 29.9 miles 8.3 mph avg 28.2 mph max 1765 ft ascent English miles: 117.8 French miles: 523.6 | ||||||
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