Mercure Saint Lary St-Lary-Soulan

So decided to stay a second day in Nantes....hotel was in fab location, but loads of bars right outside the hotel, thank goodness for double glazed windows!

Went to the local saturday market this morning, geez, i love the french markets. took us about 20 mins walking around just to figure out what to eat.

Off to see the chateau this afternoon then maybe to a soccer game (Nantes vs. Nimes) this evening.

Chateau ...

Ok, so we arrived in Nantes....bit of a nightmare to park, but all good. Found a very centrally located budget hotel (1 star) - cheap and cheerful. We had booked the small room, but as that turned out to be on the fifth floor, we opted for the luxury room (an additional 4 euros a night) on the first floor. Is quite big, with ensuite bathroom. Well, actually, its more like the room is ensuite to the bathroom as when u open the door to the room u walk right into the ...

... worked at repairing a bit more gear. It’s been about 1500km since the last time, so I guess we were due. The toe-clip repair on the pannier bag didn’t even last the first day. But we have been surviving with tying it on, and then wrapping a bungee cord tightly around the bag to hold it in place against the frame. Brian busted through his waterproof clothing bag yesterday (don’t worry, we had a spare ...

... any dog or cat. So cute!

Pottock.. probably spelt incorrectly, but they're small wild horses found in the Payes Basque region

Regular wild horses.... today I came across around 10 on the mountain side. They were surprising f'riendly. I placed my walking sticks on the floor and one young scamp picked it up (biting into the rubber handle) and gave it back to me!

Dogs... well rat like dogs, the french really do seem to like small pooches

Dragonflies ...

... just barely. I probably should explain what I mean when I say they earned a star. I have 10 pictures of this bouncer guy shushing them and whenever I say be quiet I put a man up. By the end of the class, if there are less that 10 be quiet men up, the class earns a star for the day. After 5 stars, the next day they play a game. It's a good thing so far. After school I went home to grab a quick lunch and then went to observe another class. When I got there ...

... I would be lost Julie immediately said I meant something else, and I was saying that wrong (I wasn't), and David was so touched that he pretended to cry for a good five minutes. Haha Then we had the dessert. There was pumpkin pie (made from a can. I liked it alright, but I like the from scratch version better) and jello. Apparently she's never had a Thanksgiving without jello. I've never had one with it, and she said that was very sad. We had that and then we talked some more. I ...

... ended and you can't really do anything about it. Wow. I had never seen anything like that before. Plus all the kids were talking constantly and it was so noisy that three girls started crying because they had a headache. I seriously wasted 45 minutes of my life just trying to get them to shut up and behave. I told them this but of course they don't know what I'm saying. It was so awful. Then came my wonderful classes, the young ones. We were learning I'm from and I ...

... one that's not nice to me. All the other teachers are great. I found out which classroom I was in for the afternoon and went there to wait for my students. Another teacher was doing work in there so she stayed for my classes. She kind of spoke English so she kept trying to speak English to me. I can understand French pretty well but apparently she didn't think so. My kids came in and they were SO great. This class had never had English before. They are my youngest and by far my ...

... etc there is unisex toilets, so a guy could be having a pee and you would need to walk past to go to the bathroom. I kid you not; it is not as if I can't read the sign for his and hers, I have also worked out the disabled toilets usually have full length mirrors and don't smell so much of pee. The other odd thing I notice is there is often no toilet seats, as is the case at the youth hostel. Now I am not sure if it is because my **** has ...

... everyone should be sitting at home because there is nothing to do', I kept telling myself. Rolling into the first town, Amboise, all was clear; Market day. Ambled through the selection of hats, caps, underpants and T-shirts. There was the odd hidden stall selling cheese, meats, breads etc. The market led me into the town centre. Amboise, originally a Roman town and river crossing has a large castle towering above. It played a role ...