3 July 2025 (sunny and hot) 42km

Today we were shocked and saddened to hear of Liverpool striker, Diogo Jota and his brother killed in a car accident in north western Spain.

R.I.P Boys.

Today readers, Julia is in charge of the blog.

That is because she insisted that I tell the full story about my French musical debut last night. 

The evening began modestly. Just two people, comfortable in each other's company, sharing a nice meal with a couple of drinks. And us sitting at the next table.

The venue was a small poolside cafe and we managed to procure a shaded table. The meal was delicious and was followed by a couple more drinks. 

It was around this time that a young lady came around the tables asking if anyone would like to sing.

Being the humble, shy , retiring singer that I am, I didn't make too much of it, preferring to listen to others share their talents. However, Julia was insistent, so I finally agreed to sing.

The song I chose was one of my favourites, "Yesterday."

The reason being, that I actually wrote that song, when I was around six or seven, but Dad, knowing a guy who played in a band at the time, gifted it to them, to help them progress.

Anyway, I digress. 

As word got around that my name was on the karaoke sheet, the little cafe/bar area began to get quite busy.

In fact for a space which comfortably held around thirty people, there were now upwards of two or three thousand cramming in around the pool area, up on the banks and throughout the eating area. 

Before I appeared, there were a couple of warm up acts, who did very well for up and coming performers.

Toward the end of the last act's song, the crowd began to get restless.

There was definitely an air of anticipation.

Foot stomping began as soon as they finished and now the crowd were in a fervour, clapping and chanting "Kiwi, Kiwi!". 

As I took the stage, the crowd surged forward. I nonchalantly removed the mic from the stand and the first words echoed around the arena.

Off to one side, I recognized a French music producer, sitting listening. His face lit up with those first words and he smiled reassuringly. Even his little Bijon Frise seemed to be smiling, sitting in his lap. 

The crowd by now were enthralled, people were singing along, some brought to tears with emotion. I knew then that I had them in the palm of my hands.

Somewhere through the second verse, I could sense what the music producer was feeling. That this performance would go down as one of the finest, the French had seen.

As the last line softly drifted into the night air, women screamed and began removing their panties and throwing them on stage. 

Walking off, I was embraced by Julia, also smiling and with about fifteen pairs of panties in her arms.

I knew then, the French had taken me to their hearts.

Women, men and even some transgender were chanting...."Je t'adore," which I believe means,

"Your talent is only as big as your manhood." 

As I left the arena, I felt a pounding in my chest. Thinking it was the adrenaline, I ignored it, until it happened again, when Julia said 

"Wake up Pete, you're snoring again.”

Back to reality with Ju here.

After a very enjoyable night at the camp restaurant, we went to sleep late (about 11pm) last night, having decided we would have a bit of a sleep in today. The plan was not to go too far again and the first supermarket was about 12km along the route and not open until 8.30am, so no point getting up too early.

Last night was the second night we didn't bother putting the flysheet on the tent and it definitely makes it a bit cooler, which is needed.

So it was a leisurely rising at 7am for us and packed up and on the road by 7.30am.

We followed the Lac du Leman route again around the shoreline to the quaint village of Nernier. Beautiful riding temperature and a bit of hazy cloud to reduce the bite of the sun.

We continued round to the next village of Yvoire, which had an impressive medieval town gate and a notice “pedestrian only”. 

So we thought we'd push our bikes around the village a bit to see what it was like.

Well if we thought Nernier was quaint, Yvoire was unbelievable. Every way you looked was a picture. They have really looked after their old buildings and old plants. Climbing wisteria and other vines and potted flowers all over the place.

My mother would have loved this place. She loved old, quirky buildings, she loved flowers and she loved swimming in calm waters. This place had all that and a castle as well, on the shore of Lac du Leman.

We were so pleased we had stopped early yesterday, as if we'd passed that medieval entrance yesterday, we would have been too hot to go exploring and would have missed the whole village.

Oops, just noticed the no photo sign in the plant pot after I took this photo.

We mounted our trusty steeds again and continued our easterly trek along the Lake Geneva shoreline. Stopped off at a handy supermarket for breakfast supplies and because we're back in France, berries were on the menu again - yum! We found a shaded concrete bench seat on the shores of the lake with a gentle breeze blowing in our faces. The perfect spot to breakfast.

Because we had taken longer than planned to get to this point, Swiss time was running out to get to our planned campground for the night before they closed at noon. (Oh that's right, we're still in France).

Just another old chateau in the countryside.

Got checked in and put the powerbanks on to charge before cycling down to the lake for a swim (it's about 300 meters down the road).

 

In for a very welcome dip before we cycled 3km to the Lidl store to grab lunch. Back to camp to eat our salads and fruit and iced coffee.

Then we got some washing done before heading back to the lake for another dip. 

Grabbed an ice cream which we ate in the shade of the beach side shack before going and jumping in the lake again. Cycled back to camp where Pete got more washing done. Honestly, he would have be the cleanest cycle tourer on the road. I had to stop him washing the groundsheet today!

At 6.30pm we headed to the small shop across the road for a cold beer, tomato, avocado, chicken pieces and a quinoa and lentil salad. Brought everything back to camp, mixed it up and feasted on a delicious meal on the camp restaurant deck in the shade. 

The restaurant is closed tonight and opens tomorrow as the kids break up from school tomorrow. Then the camps are going to get busy.

We have decided to stay an extra night here, so it will interesting to see the difference between tonight and tomorrow night.

Caught up with news from home including photos and videos of all the rain you've been getting in New Plymouth. Hope you all stay safe and reasonably dry.