A Hot First Night…
After a long drive yesterday, we arrived at the Ibis Budget in Tours at about 11.30pm. A long long day, but we stopped regularly and swapped drivers about every 90 mins. It was so hot when we arrived (about 36 degrees). This bit of France is having a heatwave like the UK is (fortunately it’s cooler than here where in La Rochelle.)
We decided we were going to pay for secure parking at the hotel as last year our car had an attempted break in whilst parked on the street overnight at another Ibis Budget. We hit a problem however… the bikes, which are on the roof, meant that our car didn’t fit in the car park so we had to take them off. Planning on just taking the bikes to our room, the reception man was not keen on the idea so he offered to put them in the store room and locked it. Jon was a tad worried, but with the room being locked I was sure it would be okay (which it was).
He even offered us free tea and coffee because we had no change for the hotel vending machine. A quick shower and we were ready for a very, very hot night!
We all slept on and off because of the heat. An early start today, so with orange juice, croissants, pain au chocolate and coffee consumed and lunch bought we are en-route now to La Rochelle (about 3 hours drive, avoiding tolls). The forecast is for rain tomorrow, so it may be an interesting first day riding!