Day 17
Monday 29.06.09 Navarrenx to La Rochelle 250 miles
Away at 8.30 am heading for La Rochelle, a stop on the way to Brittany. It’s going to be mostly motorway today. I’m heading North West to get onto the main route North. I stop almost straight away at a large truck stop and have some breakfast. Back on the bike with earplugs fitted, it helps when passing these huge lorries, and almost straight away I’m stuck in traffic. It’s not too bad, just loads of lorries to pass. It starts getting busy around Bordeaux and soon I’m in motorway hell, a bit like the M6 in rush hour. At least it’s moving.
And here they come! The Bordeaux Bikers. Wearing almost no protective gear, apart from a helmet, the weave in and out of the slow moving traffic doing 60 to 70 mph! Stay with them or get out of the way. They get quite upset if you slow them up.
I am finally around Bordeaux and branching off for La Rochelle. I go thru the wrong gate at the Peage and get charged at ‘car’ rate, bugger! La Rochelle is quite a big town and I spend sometime trying to find somewhere to stay. After a couple of mistakes I set the Sat Nav to find me a campsite and it takes me to a nice, quiet site within walking distance of the beach.
It’s very hot again so I cook myself a meal and settle down in the shade for a couple of hours. Later I go for a walk to the beach but there isn’t a lot there so I go back to the site for a quiet evening and an early night.