18 June 2025 (sunny and hot) 53km
Woke at 5am but dozed until 5.40am I was restless, anxious for no apparent reason. But the reason would soon become clear.
Julia woke from her usual restful sleep and we stealthily began the packdown. We were surrounded on all sides by other campers, unaware of who might suddenly pop out of another tent, or caravan, with a hearty "Bonjour!”
Crept over to the ‘toilettes', made it past the other bikepacker, sleeping soundly on our left. Negotiated the children's playground, full of danger with swings, slides and those swirly things, that nobody knows the name of, but make you feel sick.
Toilets were empty, but we opened every cubicle anyway. You can never be too sure. Get caught in here and you're in the shit.
Time to go. When we checked in last night we thought it was “just another campground" but this morning when we silently rode our bikes through the remaining section of camp, I realised why I'd felt uneasy.
Locked gates.... not open until 7.45am.
I don't think so. It was 7am and we had places to be.
But it wasn't just the gates. Outside, patrolling the perimeter was a massive crop irrigation system, with huge hoses pumping out water, all over the exit route on its spray routine. Obviously the work of the French Agricultural Irrigation Sector.
We'd already worked out that there was just enough room between the locked gate and the electric fence, to get a bike through, but the spray rotation on the irrigation system, meant our ride for freedom, would have to be timed. As we watched and tried to judge when to move, we realised that they were using "heavy water".
Julia went first, timing her ride to near perfection. However she did take a few spits to the upper body. But she was safe.
I took off, keeping my eyes firmly on the rotating hoses. Two down, one to go, but I could see it had picked me out. Faster.. faster...but no, a virtual soaking.
I cried out to Ju “Go ..go... ride for your life, I'm done with this world. Tell the kids I love them!” And she did.. she rode and rode and didn't look back.
As I lay on my back on the water drenched road I remember thinking "She didn't even bloody look back."
Ju here: Slowed things down today after an exhausting day yesterday. Had a fantastic road surface cycling into Châtel-de-Neuvre and beyond that some lovely small farm roads. It was easy going and a pleasant contrast to yesterday as our legs were still fatigued and felt every little incline today.
Breakfast in Varenne sur Allier at a shady park with a toilet (which was not shady at all).
As we were eating, we heard a hearty “Bon appetit!” yelled to us from one of the rubbish truck guys, hanging off the back of the truck. He looked so carefree and smiling as the truck swung round the corner, holding on with one arm and an open armed salute to us with the other, apparently loving life with not a care in the world.
The one nod to Health and Safety was the high vis jacket worn loosely over his typically French blue and white striped top with a jauntily placed cap magically stuck to his head.
It reminded us of the days before the robotic Waste Management trucks took over the job in New Plymouth and those joyful characters were lost from our streets.
From here we had an assortment of surfaces and riding, from a smooth fast main road, to a gravel track beside the railway, the inevitable cobbles and a terrific river trail to get us into Vichy.
But before we got to that, my Mapy route insisted we try and follow the track by the river, which almost took us through a cement works. As we cycled innocently through the gates, we were instructed to go back out and take the skinny track on the other side of the fence, dangerously close to the ever threatening stinging nettles and blackberry thorns.
This did lead us to the river but the track disintegrated into an overgrown path full of stinging nettles and blackberry bushes. We managed to find our way back to the road and eventually the awesome cycle track along the river. Unfortunately the river was still very dirty as by now it was definitely hot enough for a swim.
As we cycled into Vichy, we noticed a Carrefour supermarket and thought we'd make a quick diversion as it would be nice to have some tomato to go with our Camembert cheese. So we found a shady park for Pete to stand watch over the bikes while I went in to grab said tomato and a cold drink and some 2 minute rice.
I walked in and this place was huge! And not just a supermarket, more like a Kmart with a supermarket thrown in the middle of it. Despite the huge area, I managed to find the tomato, also grabbed a pear because they looked nice, saw some sunscreen and grabbed that too as it was a small tube (good for packing) and we were running low. Even found the 2 min rice reasonably quickly and had the usual frustrating look for a cold drink. But found a coke near the checkout and entered the maze to get myself to the checkout.
Everyone else appeared to have big trolley loads and I spied two cashiers up the other end seemingly doing the smaller shops. So I backtracked out the maze and walked to the far end and went to go through the turnstyle with a blue arrow on to get to these cashiers, who at that time were doing nothing.
Big alarm sounds as I go through gate with arrow on. “No madam” I'm told by the cashier as she points back over to the no man's land of the checkout maze. So back I traipse to the back of the line and end up back at the very same cashier. She sees me with my paltry amount of groceries and I get another “No madam” with a terse verbal explanation in French of where I should be.
I gather it's past no man's land and back into enemy territory and at this stage I'm about to give up and throw all my groceries in the nearest freezer and make a run for it. But the thought of Pete's face if I went back out from the air conditioned coolness into the suffocating warmth without a cold drink in hand, kept me on task.
So I am left to try the self checkout with scant knowledge of French. First stumbling block, the tomato, fruite or legume? I remember vaguely being taught at school that it is technically a fruit, due to it having pips I think? Apparently not, it's a legume. I tap the appropriate picture, but nothing. I push the button for help, but nobody is forthcoming.
So I spy a solitary cashier and approach her with my wares. “No, no madam”, I am told and was directed back to self checkout. Glad we'd only done 40kms this morning as this was getting exhausting! A helpful customer told me I needed to weigh the fruit back at the fruit and vege department.
So back I go, get the price on and back to the self checkout. Everything scanned and then I see it doesn't take cash and I've left my card back on the bike. Thankfully by now there is help at hand and a staff member directs me to the only cash machine out of the ten there.
She has to swipe her card on the machine to take cash and even exiting the store I was unable to do on my own. She had to swipe her card to let me out. What a performance. Really, all you have to do if you want us to stick around that badly is offer us free ice cream.
As I left I noticed a section called Espace Service. An escape service would have been very useful!
Back to our lovely cycle track which ran alongside the River Allier and we found a shaded bench on the Vichy riverside for lunch. As we sat and enjoyed our view, we realized we recognized this place. Across the river we could see where the NZ kayakers were all awarded their medals at last year's Olympics.
After lunch we cycled the last few kms to the campground and checked in for 20 Euro, which seemed pretty reasonable seeing as they have a pool here.
Today Pete agreed this should be our first port of call and then we could return to our pitch and see which way the sun was heading before setting up tent. That swim was so heavenly and by the time we got back to our pitch, it was almost fully shaded, so putting the tent up was pleasant.
Did some washing and sewed a button on Pete's shorts, (think he'll have to cut back on the Camembert!) before going for a ride into town.
Vichy is apparently a famous spa town but on a hot day like this, a spa was the last thing we needed. Although it did appear to have thermal baths, it also has mineral water freely available from a sort of water cafe in the middle of town. I filled up my water bottle and had a drink. I was surprised to find it was slightly fizzy with a pleasant taste.
Pete here: Picking up on our tour of Vichy. This city seems very vibrant, with people of all ages. It's what I would call a "classy" city. By that I mean some of the architecture is stunning. Someone or a group of someone's, at some stage in this city's development, has taken the time and gone for quality. From commercial to cultural, domestic to artistic.
We've already seen a lot of churches on this tour so when we came across the Notre Dame of Marmalade (or something like that), we only popped in to get out of the oppressive heat. But what a stunning example of decadence (but in a nice way).
Stained glass workmanship displayed magnificently in the central dome. Beautiful marble inlaid with gold leaf artwork. Stunning ceiling artwork. A simple, but spectacular organ (Yes I know...but it's not about me).
But with everything it had, the thing I noticed most was it’s sense of peace. Outside, I put my ear buds in and listened to AC/DC's " Highway to Hell" as we rode off down the street just to level things up.
After enjoying our afternoon's encounter with architecture, we finished the day riding through some of their beautiful parks. Unlike some parks in France, which can have that "wild and overgrown" look to them, these were manicured and tree laden.
We sat eating ice cream in a lovely circular section of a park, with a bandstand in the centre and people coming and going.
Now, back at camp, we tucked into a delicious dinner of Chilli con carne, lentils and green beans. Delicious.
Big day of climbing tomorrow. Don't know what worries us most: the hill climbs, the extreme temperature or what happens when you combine the two. Stay tuned.
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