Friday July 28th, Vire

Could be anywhere in NZ!

I keep thinking about the days that I complained about the heat, but must admit the grey weather and cooler temps are getting a bit frustrating. Haven’t reached 20 degrees for the past week or so, and have seen very little blue skies and sun. But guess the plus side is that we can sleep well at night in the cooler air.

Bikes out and set off for our ride this morning with sweaters on for the first time. Enjoyed the ride along the old rail trail, we only did a section of it as it goes for miles in this area. It was mainly sloping downhill on the way out and knew we would have to use our power for the trip back to the van, but no sweat.

This is a very agricultural area, with many dairy farms and enjoyed passing through them on the ride. Disappointing that there was nowhere that we could stop off for a lunch half way, got quite used to it! It was well after one when we got back to the van, with over 30kms pedalled, and  picked up some bread at the boulangerie for lunch.

Love all the road signs made with bales.

Mid-afternoon we drove to Vire, just 30 minutes away where we had found a good Aire in a carpark just 500 metres from the centre of town. Great spot in a corner of a carpark along with about 15 other campers. This is free to overnight as well as free facilities to empty tanks and refill with fresh water. Such a great system.

 Left Ian to put his feet up and I found a hairdresser and made an appointment, only had to wait an hour so went shopping. Very nice town and found some interesting shops! There was a really old Roman archway in town as well as a rounded turret that seemed to have reasonably new houses built on the side of it. Maybe part of it was bombed in the war.  

Once again, the hairdresser didn’t speak English but we communicated okay with sign language and she did a pretty good job although not as good as the girl that cut my hair earlier on in France.

The trees in this town were pruned within an inch of their lives!

Interesting Roman architecture in Vire.