Dirac - 21 October 2019

21 October

Very random - had lots of people arrive yesterday, park up and jump out their cars to look at no water in the river - wonder if it’s a new phenomenon?

Also really random, a man in his white transit van drove fast just past our front bumper - and parked. Then stayed there for hours! He did have a cute dog I went out to see, no lead, but so well trained. He was either talking to himself, or there was someone we couldn’t see there as well! He got out a checked out damage to his bumper, and then lounged around outside his vehicle, but talking all the time! We waited until about 8pm, and said if he didn’t leave, we wanted to be the ones to move, as we didn’t trust him to reverse off in the dark and hit Dave. Anyway, he then left, so we stayed.

Watched Strictly again - they are mainly really rather good! Think David going was the right decision!

At 8am this morning, I went to the boulangerie - and we had croissants 🥐for breakfast for a change - not excellent like one we had previously - can’t remember where - but fresh!

Tintin drew the short straw for a long drive today. Was about 3 hours in total. Stopped off at one point because our under cupboard catch broke and the door flew open. Quick tie-up with string around the kitchen tap, until we stopped for lunch and Tintin used a replacement one from our bedroom overhead locker. They are only made of plastic, I suppose metal would be too expensive for Mobilvetta!

The first hour or so of driving was in low cloud/foggy conditions. We also managed to get lost for a while in Périgueux - due to deviations again - sort of! Have to say, it’s not often we don’t know where we’re supposed to be going! Another moho in front of us had to turn around in a residential area too!

We’re now parked in an Aire in Dirac. As the weather looked good, got the bikes out and did a 15 mile ride trip into Angoulême (population 46,000) in the Charente département.

On our way, because of yet another closed road, we were able to ride through where traffic couldn’t - and saw a wild deer 🦌- glad Tintin could zoom in on him before he fled!

Picked up a map from the tourist information. Struggled for a while to find a suitable place to lock up our bikes, but then went walking.

The International Comic Festival takes place here every year, in one place you could read practically every French comic in issue since 1946 (if you wanted to!) and the city has murals of some of these characters on some of it’s street walls.

Saint Pierre cathedral is Romanesque, not Gothic like many others in cities. Work has been ongoing since 2000, so sadly we couldn’t see all the detail of the carved facade. It’s absolutely huge! Inside, I suppose due to recent work, it all looks clean and feels bright and airy!

The Town Hall was also huge!

However, overall, the place felt grungy and unloved. Although a happy man stopped to ask whether we were lost, or happy or tired - and he was very cheerful!

Got back to Dave about 5, when it was perhaps due to rain - but no - still sunny! This Aire only has 5 spaces - and it’s full with now 7! There’s a huge converted Belgian truck with kids, but most importantly a cute little two month old puppy who I had to see. Sharp teeth or what! Perhaps he’ll be huge, as his paws are already large!

The moho next to us on one side also has children, and a list of 30 countries they’ve visited on the side! It’s in alphabetical order, so what happens if they visit some new country! The other side are two English vans, each with just one woman and a dog each. Opposite is a German converted Toyota. They’ve closed their front curtains and don’t want to be part of anything! We feel like we’re in a commune! But heyho, it’s a new Aire, free - and lots of space for children and dogs to run around in.

More photos from today -

Same photo below taken with my Panasonic on the left and Kay’s iPhone on the right. Kay has far more cloud definition. I need to work on how to use my Panasonic on manual more!

There’s 26 listed street art walls listed, here’s a few we saw.