Day 02 – Poitiers to Bergerac

After a pleasant but all to short sleep (the Wiff-eee didn't quite work out as expected – we got 5 minutes worth before they unplugged it and went to bed, so the majority had to be done via GPRS back in our room – we didn't even get the beer we had promised ourselves!)

Still, despite only getting just over 5 hours sleep, it was a nice hotel..

Unfortunately the coffee was cold by the time we got to breakfast, so we all but skipped that part and headed into the lobby for the mornings clues and instructions.

Chip had thrown an unexpected spanner in the works to try and split the packs up a bit – it did little to help us though – a series of 10 questions all following the lines of In the sentence, "Rome is the most interesting capITAL You will visit on your tour", the word ITALY is hidden. We all had 4 minutes to get as many as we could – which we did – well, we managed one. Correction. Mike did. I just looked at lots of words and wanted more coffee. Still, as 4 points were awarded for each correct answer, we merrily claimed our 4.

So, onwards and upwards, and we set about solving the map clues around the piano so we could get our days' route plotted..

First location clue "Looks like a total of eleven Romans take on to go North East" took us to Vivonne, where we went in search of "Where can't I be found". The answer was found quite early on in our arrival to the town but we felt it was too obvious, so spent best part of an hour looking for something better, only to end up back with the first answer we had come up with..

It was worth the extra stay to enjoy the scenery however..

Next stop was Chabanais (Confused habaniacs!) where we made up for the extended stay in the first town by finding the answer with-in minutes of our arrival.

Determined to keep up the momentum we had gained, we set off for Rochechouart (French rock ends where art is) and went in search of a big house to see how old an angel was.

Mission was once again accomplished quite quickly, once we discovered a bronze sculpture of an angel wrapped around a tree with the date 1985 carved into its foot, so we headed in search of a café. This isn't such as easy task on a Bank Holiday in France and we ended up having a nice meal in a rather posh restaurant, which took a lot longer than expected (the French can't be rushed!!) and so we lost most of the advantage we had gained in the last two towns. Still, needs must and all that!

Next stop was Thiviers where the challenge was to find what ghostly film is showing in town. The answer was found fairly soon on arrival, plain for all to see..

Happy with our answer of Lumichrome Lumiere, we headed for Hautefort (Sounds like the French version of High and Mighty). The clue here was "If your big hand was on a great tit and the other was quartz, what time would it be?"

This proved to be a time confusing and also a rather expensive task, because we suspected the answer may lie in the form of a clock in a bar or café. Being the nice people we are, we couldn't just walk into them and look around without feeling obliged to buy something, so, 2 hours, a coke, a coffee and crepe each later, we finally found what we had been looking for…

Obviously, everyone will know the Latin for Great Tit is Parus Major therefore its obvious the time would have been 5.55!

So, to our final clue destination of the day – Vergt (Go almost towards a GT).

On the way here we saw THE most stunning view ever.. Bungle and Zippy would have been so proud…

We soon found ourselves in the correct town and eventually cracked the answer to the clue "If you put your finger in a ring and played with the knockers how many doors would open?" in the form of 3 door knockers shaped as hands with a ring on the finger…(and you all thought it was going to be rude!)

By now the time was just before 8pm and most people were tucking into their dinner back at the Hotel but we still had the best part of 20miles to go. Easy you would think, however the hotel was in the back end of beyond and so we once again put our trust into our beloved Autoroute and let it do the rest. It really surpassed itself this time…

These were real Evo roads that even Tommi Mackinen would have been proud of!

Unfortunately these "roads" (we use the word loosely!) took their toll on the new car; by the time we got to our evenings accommodation, it was looking a little worse for wear..

Just kidding, its fine really, a testament to the build quality of Mitsi's, and as a picture is worth a thousand words, here it is:

So, after tucking into a delicious 3 course meal, (shame we were full from lunch and crepes), it was time for Chip to announce the days results again… here they are for all to see.

As you can see, the quiz did us no favours at all, but equal 5th will do for now, and there is only 16 points between here and first place. With plenty more questions and a couple of quizzes to go we still have ample opportunity to plummet down the leaderboard!!

For those still interested, here is todays' route.

All that remains to do now is to upload this update (no prizes for guessing that this remote Chateau in the back end of beyond doesn't have Wiff-eee), finish our beers and head to bed!

Until the next time,

Garry and Mike