Mercure Alencon 2m Alençon

Distance covered: 38.6 miles

So we cycled a mission and met up with Olly. He was all like "but i tried to find you guys". Thats nice, but we never did find where that slug went from the ceiling. Anyway after hugs and kisses we cycled to a MASSIVE shop and bought MASSIVE food. We then cycled to some woods (full of broken glass and litter) and ...

... to sleep due to spending our time looking for Olly. Looking at the state of us and not sure if our friend even existed the police decided to take us to a drugs rehabilitation centre. Here we were given gone off pancakes and sheets with three different types of stain on them. There was also a slug on the ceiling. . . . . . Olly was spending the night in a hotel. Tempted by sleeping on the floor I braved the matress and fell asleep laughing (like a metal)

Distance covered: 40 miles

After a much needed nights sleep we headed for a super market to buy the days food. Unfortunatelly in France Sundays are dead and everywhere is shut. So with little food we pushed on. It quickly became apparent that Olly was struggling a bit with the pace. This maybe due to the fact that he spent the night in a hammock sleep talking ...

A lazy day, a guilty pleasure. Today we did very little of any sort. The weather was glorious and so we wandered around the lake and through the town. This is definitely a resort town, which obviously fills up with Parisians in July and August. For the rest of the year it seems filled with retiree's who enjoy the parks, sports, and sunshine and great food. Probably the casino is a draw card for some but it isn’t something Andre, nor I, would do. I guess that if I had to compare ...

... at how nice they are. They are part of the ‘Hotels of Silence’ group, which made me laugh as they obviously don’t know me. The concept is for plenty of rest and relaxation, which is just what my feet could do with right now as they are a bit sore from all the walking. Andre is off to do some laps in the pool and I guess I should go and relax now and enjoy the tranquillity. I have a book to finish, and then we have a dinner in the hotel.

... Say la vi. Is that French? What does it mean? No clue. ah... google helps, got it now! We make our way to the castle entrance with the expectation to just look from the outside (we are traveling cheap as possible!) ... but are delighted to find it is GRATUIT (that means 'free' to all my non-French speaking friends out there ... sheesh, come on now, learn French already will you!) ... some remodel work being done, but no problem for us. The price is ...

... and then, when they find out we are from the States, you see a bit of a sparkle in their eyes and they seem to shift in to an EXTRA-nice mode and they go out of their way to help. We love it! ... I'm guessing that a huge city like Paris, where tourists flock (particularly from the States), we may run in to rude people ... but I think thats more of a big city thing than a French thing. We end the night by enjoying the city's free light show. Hidden projectors fire brightly ...

... few weeks. And all this for a very reasonable price - the package we had included accomodation, breakfast and the three course dinner formula. Though we had to pay for drinks, the hotel offers some really good wines at very moderate prices (half of the price at what you pay for these wines in normal restaurants). Highly recommend!

Et voila, j´arrive de La Baule en train, mes derniers moments de confort... bien entendu, j´attends Antoine 2 heures à la gare :) ceux qui le connaisse comprendront. On met encore 3 heures a quitter le bled mais c´est le vrai voyage qui commence

... resting place for buses before they came on duty. We wondered around for about another 45 min and were on our way baxk to teh first bus station to ask for directions when we noticed a bus with passengers leaving the sketchy looking station. This time there was a driver in a bus so i asked him if it was the correct station and he said it was. This was about 1045. We wated until the bus cam and i clarified that it was the correct bus that ...