We woke up in good time and said goodbye to Le Mans on a dull, damp and overcast morning. At least the road South was fairly traffic free which was just as well because it soon started to rain which just got heavier and heavier. I was looking for fuel and at the services said that if the pumps weren’t under cover I’d be driving straight out again. One problem was that, for the mostpart, the road surfaces don’t drain well so that as well as torrential rain there was an enormous amount of spray.

It did at least stop for a while so we stopped for a bit of lunch at a motorway services; in the parking was a car with a stout and elderly dog whose owners had equipped it with an access ramp which I thought was rather sweet.

Anyway it continued to deluge intermittently until we reached Aquitaine and this shows how people see things differently. To Mrs Sixwheeler, who is a history buff, Aquitaine means Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine – a queen in France and England; to me it means a breed of large blonde cattle.

At last we were in Bordeaux and found our hotel which is very conveniently placed to get into the old city either on foot or by tram. Our room, to be frank, is tiny; it lacks for nothing that we need but we do have to coordinate our breathing if we both wish to move around it at the same time.

We relaxed in our room intending to go out for dinner at about 7.30 but I was looking at a clock still set to UK time and we didn’t notice until 8.30 but all was well. Only problem was that the place we had been recommended had a power outage so we had to find somewhere else, so went next door.

Here are a couple of pictures of Bordeaux from our walk along the River Garonne this afternoon.

Tomorrow looks set fair so we’re looking at a tram into town after breakfast.

6 June 2018