Friday 2nd October.
We are parked up tonight in the tiny, pretty village of Rom, 46.29120 0.11403 about 50kms south west of Poitiers. We didn't intend to stop here, our plan was to spend the night in Couhe but the parking area allocated to camping cars was pretty scruffy and the services were filthy. It also had the feel of the kind of car park that would be full of boy racers later in the evening. So we had a pot of tea, consulted the map and set off for Rom, just a ten minute drive away and we're glad we did. The village boasts a museum displaying artefacts and the history of Roman activity and settlement in the area, it's mostly directed toward school children but we gladly paid our €4 each which included a map in English showing a walk around the village where we could see the Roman baths and other significant features. There is also a graveyard in the village which is a sombre reminder of events in the area over seventy years ago. Driving through Normandy we see many cemeteries where allied servicemen are buried and we always find them to be emotional places to visit but the events here were particularly horrific and still upsetting even after the passing of so many years.
We're parked between a basketball court and a boules pitch. I doubt whether the village could muster enough kids for a one on one and the four elderly boules players had to go home for their tea at six o'clock so it's peaceful now and I suspect it will be until the dawn chorus commences at silly o'clock in the morning.
Last night we stayed at La Suze-sur-Sarthe, 47.88932 0.03058 we've stayed there three times before as it's a natural stop off point on the way south but also because we can park overlooking the river and it's a pretty little town with a great Boulangerie. Parking next to the river I had to test my new fishing tackle, of course, but had about as much success as the French guy parked next to us - no success at all but despite his complete absence of English and my seriously limited French we managed to chat away happily about fishing for ten minutes or so. I was hoping I might cast a lure or two this evening as we are only a hundred metres from the river but when I went to investigate earlier the river is completely dried up! C'est la vie eh?
View from the bridge at La Suze, you can maybe see us parked up behind the floating restaurant:
Still shorts and T shirts but it's not looking too promising for the next few days - showers forecast for the next couple of days.
Pat
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