Boats at Le Vanneau

Because of the heat His Lordship and I started off on our cycle run a bit earlier than usual, and it was pleasant for a time with a lovely breeze.

The countryside to the west of Niort is the Marais Poitevin and the cycling through shady trees alongside sluggish rivers and canals with heavy cream coloured cattle  in shady fields and punts on the water, was heavenly.

His Lordship and I stopped in a field of hay stacks to have our breakfast of briochettes and water in the shade of a haystack and then again in the  pretty hamlet of Le Vanneau to take this blip.

Our last stop was the beautiful village of Coulon, the centre of the Venise Vert, but there were so many cyclists, that some of its appeal was lost to us.

Parking the bikes in the sun back at the Permanence while we had a beer, meant extremely hot botts on burning saddles on the run back to the hotel, with the temperature having risen again to the mid 30's.

It will be a long time before I complain about the cold.