80 miles ridden – 4200 feet climbed – temperature 25C

We were guaranteed rain today, the question was when. Forecasts ranged between 09:00 and 13:00 with between 30% and 55% certainty. The sun was up when we left and the town did look so much nicer than it had in the rain last night.

Today was reversed from yesterday. We climbed in the first half of the day and enjoyed (really enjoyed) a much flatter afternoon. We only got rained on for a few minutes when we skirted a serious storm – as we crossed a bridge over a motorway we looked to the East and saw what would have been Armageddon had we been on bikes. We had waterproofs on and sunglasses as the sun was shining while it rained.

Lunch was in a large cabin – Au Refuge Du Trappeur in Sille Le Guillaume – and we arrived just before the main storm of the day came through so we had a result there.

Although we were a bit cold when we left the sun was working really hard to break through and it did warm things up. We went through some lovely little villages although they were pretty much deserted. Much time has been spent speculating where everyone has gone – perhaps they knew we were doing through and just avoided us.

We went through a couple of forests which because of the sun and the rain smelt wonderful. This area seems to be inundated with cuckoos who were chirping away merrily.

The last 25 miles was in beautiful sunshine and we passed through a lot of fruit orchards and cornfields. We had seen a few chateaux during the day albeit in the mist:

Tomorrow we have a 50% to 95% chance of 16mm of rain. Sue is very excited.