Montignac

Day 9
Distance: 113.47 km, Top Speed: 60.7 kmph.

It rained extremely heavily in the morning. I threw in the metaphorical towel (a towel which would have been quite useless were it literal, as it would have been soaked anyway) and stopped for lunch at a restaurant. I figured I would not only be paying for hot food, but warmth and shelter as well.

Then, in what was possibly the most annoying moment of my entire trip, an old lady appeared.

She was clearly related to the restaurant in some way, so I asked her in my broken French if I could eat. She said yes and proceeded to rattle out some lighting fast French which I couldn't understand. I replied: "Je suis désolé madam, mais je ne parle pas Français." She didn't acknowledge it. She didn't even slow down. She just kept going. And going. And going. It may not sound like much, but having someone radiate ignorance at you so intensely when you're cold, tired and soaked to the bone got very annoying, very quickly.

To make matters worse, I left the restaurant only to find out I had my second flat tyre of the trip. The schizophrenic nature of the weather meant I started to change it outside, but had to pack the entire operation into a nearby phone booth when the heavens unloaded on me yet again.

Too wet to face camping, I arrived in Sarlat-la-Canéda in the evening and ended up staying in an astronomically overpriced room. Not the best day.