A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
La Clayette
13.34 and just after lunch. This was the view from the restaurant terrace. The food was good though I ended up having to rush at the end because some guy was pollarding the plane trees just outside the restaurant under which my bike was parked!
Pretty bike
I stopped to put on sun cream, notice the sun hat on the back of the bike. I also, luckily, double checked the map before riding back up the hill I'd come down - I didn't need to go back, this was the way on to Chateauneuf and Charlieu.
The road to Chateauneuf was just great: quite and lovely tarmac that meant I just flew and Chateauneuf was very, very pretty - with a nice looking Chambre d'hote on the outskirts of town, with a bridge and a river. I'd flashed through and was just climbing up a steep hill when I thought to just ask a pedestrian to confirm this was the road to Charlieu. Just as well I did because it wasn't, it seems I had just ridden, unnecessarily up a seriously steep hill. Piss. Still, the ride back down was fun.
I eventually got to Charlieu and found the campsite at the far end of town, I had a nice little plot, with spare plots nearby, in one of which I spent ages trying to hang my washing in a tree.
Dinner was fried egg, chips and frankfurters in the cafe at the campsite. Very tasty, though hardly very French.
Day 3: Charlieu to Roanne
Stats: 3.5 hours, 48km, 13.7 average.
This map is two day's worth in fact, today's short day and tomorrows too.
Poilly sous Charlieu
07.40am. Having cycled out of Charlieu I went through Poilly sous Charlieu and met a very nice old lady on her bike cycling over the bridge out of town. She confirmed the path out of Poilly towards Roanne, a very quite bit of single width country lane.
When I got to the canal I thought I was supposed to go straight on and wasted half an hour going the wrong way, when I eventually got the right way the old lady was already cycling back!