Cue for a song… Wait a minute, it‘s stopped raining…
Yes, sunny morning if a bit cool as we left lovely Nevers and the best Ibis ever. And trundled south through open country.
I forgot to mention the grapes yesterday. The Loire harvesters were out in force. And our supper. Not the Mercure, but instead, just on the other side of the bridge, the Café Vélo. We strolled to it across the Loire where young folk were swimming and heron flying. Had a delicious glass of Pouilly Fuissé and another of red Anjou, chili con carne in baked potato (me) and salade niçoise (him) followed by the best carrot cake I have ever eaten! Owned by English of course but discretely so.
Back to today. No breakfast for hours - we are now in La France Profonde where café culture is hard to come by. So many closed businesses. So we got pâtisseries in one place and managed to tramp through civic beautification works to the only open café in another. Good coffee however.
Then it got more hilly and we approached Vichy. Don’t think the English are alone in being disrupted by fibre broadband. Oh no! Same here.
Lunchtime approached as we hit the steep road down the river towards Ambert. There’s an interesting little town called Olliergues where 26 years ago we stopped and had a sort of pôtée auvergnate soup served in a hollowed out whole cottage loaf - each. The café is still there but much smarter. We sat on a civic terrace cantilevered over the river and ate our delicious sandwiches. Learned about the famous local photographer and walked over the mediaeval bridge before continuing towards Le Puy. We detoured down the upper Loire gorges road expecting riverside caffs but once again nothing doing. All barred and shuttered and for sale. France is in a bad way.
The usual nightmare finding our hotel in Le Puy but we made it. A tired Ibis… still has actual keys for the door. But spotless and nice staff.