Hotel Les Orangeries Lussac les Chateaux

... it made its way back to its hiding place. We entered the chateau and commenced the exploration. It was very nostalgic for Conrad. We explored separately so that I did not interrupt his nostalgia. The chateau is quite large, in my eyes. I suppose there are larger, but having never been in a chateau before, I was amazed at its vastness. I can see how easily it would have been a huge playground for a child. Conrad remembers the long table in the ...

... of some pretty unusual buildings surrounded by a proliferation of cheap touristy hotels.
Undettered we paid our money and got there early. It's good to be pleasantly surprised sometimes. We had a fantastic day and only left at 10pm.
Basically it consists of a series of buildings housing different audio visual experiences ranging from Imax theatres, 3D experiences, 4D experiences and culminating in a fantastic evening show with amazing light and sound effects. We ...

... through the woods. I saw the snakes that everyone has been telling me about an I've been miffed not to see. Unfortunately, not the full body, but a wonderful glimpse of a green and yellow snake's tail-end, even that was around 2.5 foot long and the body as thick as my wrist, to have seen it in its full glory would have been brilliant, but it was busy getting away from me and didn't speak english to come back and pose. There were then ...

Distance covered: 54.6 miles

So a pretty basic day. After a few miles of cycling we climbed up the stairs under an overpass for a nice sheltered spot for lunch (obviously because it was raining... again). Fortunately, the rain stopped and the sun came out in a big way (bigger than if Bear Grylls came out).

We cycled a stupid distance as ...

... again. Amanda and Jan said I should spray the room with insect killer, but it seems a bit mean. They think I'm a bit daft I think! There are some interesting looking spiders on the land (pretty colours), but only one in France that you need to steer a little clear of - it looks like one of our baby-big-ones (those that know me will understand this description..) but a bit fatter, browny-sand colour and apparently they have furry feet that can cause skin irritation. Oooer ...

... disappearing off to my room so that they have the run of the downstairs at night and agreeing to eat and work pretty much separately. It's been a bit lonely for me though as I'd been hoping for the occassional chat and stuff. Still, I get they are upset and so I'm going with what they want and the are nice people really, it's just not ideal.

Anyway, the place here is great, the house is amazing, on 3 floors and they have chickens for ...

Yesterday was a good day. Although it rained in the morning, we were only on straight roads at the time. A strong breeze in the afternoon helped dry us out. Last night we enjoyed some well deserved downtime; an excellent 4 course meal al fresco washed down with a local red wine; a few games of petanque & pool, loud music & chat. :-)

After a meagre breakfast at Hotel de la Gare, I realsied that I had left my sweater in the local tourism office the previous afternoon so had little choice but to delay my departure until the place reopened at 10.00 am. Sweater retrieved I set off in weather that had carried out a 180 degree turn overnight. The sky was grey and threeatening and the wind was from the south-west - directly in my face. I had gone less than 10 km when I felt spots of rain and that was a precursor ...

... station and we walk around. Poitiers is SO much different from Nantes. I thought Jeff was exaggerating when he kept saying that last weekend, but he was right. Poitiers is so dense and compact. At one point on Friday I even asked Jeff if he ever feels closed in. I was totally feeling clausterphobic. I'm used to open areas and crossing a river everyday, it was just not like this at all in Poitiers. It was a really pretty town though, I enjoyed ...

... to the pilot. I guess Ryan Air never heard of Technology ! I missed the queue by 10 minutes !. I had to go get in another line that had about 60 other people from the bus in it ! Ryan Air only had 3 people working the queue, they are not very accommodating. If I wanted to go to France, I had to buy another ticket ! I explain to them about the fatalities on the train. They explain to me that it was not their fault the train had issues !! Cold heartless ...