Day 16, Rochefort to Parthenay (74 miles).

 Hi all, so this morning I sat down and had a look at the map and calculated that if I headed straight from Rochefort to Niort I'd effectively cut 40 miles off the route to Caen. I spoke to the hotel proprietor at breakfast (8am) and asked him if the road was busy and he responded with an emphatic "Non", so it was a done deal. Main road to Niort it was. In fact, it wasn't, because despite it being Sunday, so not HGV's on the roads, the constant stream of traffic soon sent me off to the back roads.

Nevertheless, this didn't add many miles to the route and it gave me the advantage of seeing some small towns and villages along the way.

What I would like to know though, is what do the French do on a Sunday? Despite the presence of cars outside the houses, the streets were deserted!

From Niort I started to ride the Velo Francette route, which passed through some very pretty areas, more typical of what you'd think of as "France" and very refreshing after the forests of the Vélodyssée. 

It tried to rain all day, not much, not enough to put on waterproofs, just enough to be annoying. I couldn't decide if it was warm enough for shorts either, but eventually succumbed. Not until about 4pm did it really start to rain, but at that stage I'd already got the finish in sight.

All day we'd been trying to arrange a rendezvous with Ann Pursey and Clive, and it seemed that Parthenay was the ideal place. The planets aligned and I met up with them both for a beer and a meal (actual food) in the evening. Diet up until then had consisted of two bananas, some jam tarts and lots of Haribo's. Was really good to meet up though, if a little emotional 😢 

Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe Angers. Hopefully at least 120km further along the road. 

#abitofabikeride 

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