Day 02 - Poitiers to Vichy

Wed, 27/05/2009 - 17:16 — Garry Taylor

Gallery Monaco Rally – Day 2

Well here we are – Day 2 already!

Thanks to those of you that have entered Guest Book entries so far ; keep them coming! (Oh, and “M”, please identify yourself !!!)

So back to the tour then, and after a 3am finish, we enjoyed each and every one of the 4 hours sleep we were lucky enough to be granted. So much in fact that we decided to wake ourselves up with some early morning fun and games..

...followed by a luxurious shower...

After a brief but satisfactory Petit Dejeaner (French lessons come at no extra cost to you, the licence payer), we gave the car a quick clean, and who should we bump into again, but our Superstar friend from the previous night, who had evidently not yet been to bed..

After packing up our gear, we erected our communications infrastructure ready for another days navigating and clue solving..

and assembled in reception just in time to be handed out today’s clues.

After working out the locations, the first and most important thing to do was to get some Super Sans Plomb 98. It appears we weren’t the only ones in need..

With every one now tanked up with Super U’s finest, we made our way out of Poitiers (after some very impressive manual navigation by Mike, due to the fact that Autoroute seemed determined that the only way out was through Futureoscope Theme Park), and we were soon headed for Chauvigny (the clue being “Go show Vinnie”)

On arrival, the clue “At the top, how many people can Number 9 accommodate” (and having been previously briefed to go to the old town) saw us headed here...

...where we bypassed security..

...and started our hunt for Number 9..

However, as nothing seemed to fit the clue at this address, I sat down with a passer-by and sought his opinion. ..

We thought long and hard, and eventually came up with this..

(you won’t be able to make out the number 9 on the side of the table, but trust us, it was there)

Happy that 8 people could be accommodated, we made a swift exit and headed back to the main road, but not before we saw this stark warning to Gates across the country warning of a new menace..

Forewarned is forearmed as they say, so be on the lookout. But remember, please don’t have nightmares.

The next location clue was “Holy South African wine”, which saw us headed to St. SAvin, where upon arrival we went straight to Church.

Partly because it was pouring with rain, but mainly because the clue was “Go to Rome. He’s very funny but what’s that hard thing he’s holding in his right hand called”

We eventually stumbled across this amusing fella who was holding the weighty tome of De Trinitate – a book familiar to many of you I would imagine. If not, get yourself a copy - available from all good book shops.

Content with our answer, we jumped back into the car and began the next leg of the journey to Neuvy-St.Sepulchre – “New V street before the tomb”

Over the next 60km’s, we caught up with various cars...

..plenty of cyclists..

And the odd tractor..

On arrival, the clue being sought was “Once securely inside a bus comes along four times. But what number are they?”

Once again, we decided to turn to religion on our quest for the answer, and eventually found the answer just inside the heavily secured entrance to the local Church..

As it was now lunch time, we adjourned to the local Cafe Bar and treated ourselves to Steak Frites for the first time this trip. Seems we weren’t alone in our choice of lunch stop..

..although this may have been more to do with the fact that they were the only place in this town serving food – but that’s not to take away any credit from the fine job they did for 60 random Jersey-ites turning up unexpectedly!

I did however nearly end up replacing Mike with my new Pal..

..but it turned out he didn’t speak a word of English, let alone have a clue how to operate a Sat Nav or laptop.

So I had to let him go.

By this time, the sun was shining and it had turned into quite a hot day – so much so that Katrina and Sarah (the Jersey Hospice Care team) decided to go topless..

Oh how we all laughed when it started raining moments later...!

Heading for clue site number 4 – “Reverse a naluc” – saw us arriving in Culan shortly after. (Chip, that’s just being lazy!)

Once there, we headed to the Chateaux, where we began searching for the person “Who didn’t make it to 63” (there was some initial confusion as the clue sheet had a typo and said 62, and as you can see from the eventual result, he actually survived to be 62, 1 month and 10days before he finally kicked the bucket!)

Once Chip had admitted to his error, we were more than delighted with our answer, but as we had needlessly covered the entirety of this Chateaux’s grounds on foot (which occupied a complete hillside)...

...a coffee break was called for, and we headed into Centre Ville to feed our addiction.

Refreshed and raring to go, we headed for the final clue site of the day, which was back up to Chips’ usual standard of map clue – “Sounds like Sue and Vinnie met here” – Souvigny obviously!

Arrival saw us looking to “Complete the following sequence – JBG – MD - ?”

As luck would have it, we practically parked in front of the answer, which was to be seen up high on the building in front of us.. (You can just make out the letters in the wrought iron railing)

Now we began the final dash back to the Hotel, putting our trust as ever in the Sat Nav..

As we neared Vichy, we were amazed and excited to see Le Petit Train had followed us here..

..although not as excited, it would seem, as the young occupants were..

Checking in at our Novotel in Vichy revealed that for the first time in the entire history of us taking part in the Tour, we had arrived back before anyone else (excluding Chip obviously!)

So in true Garry and Mike style, we celebrated by putting our stuff upstairs in our room and promptly fell asleep until 8.10pm, nearly missing dinner!

We hurried down and managed to find a couple of spare seats (well that’s not entirely true - Chip and Heidi actually gave up their seats for us, bless them).

After tucking into our meal, we were given the results sheet which reads as follows;

As you can see, the top four are tied, and only 20 points cover the top 10!

All to play for then, and tomorrow morning at 9am before departure, we have a “Quiz”, so let’s hope it’s something we’re knowledgeable on, unlike some of the previous trips where this has occurred!

Today has seen us cover 205 miles (yesterdays Mileage being 228), so we’re well over half way to Monte Carlo. ‘Yay!’ I hear you cry!

So without further ado, here is today’s route, and as it’s now 2am, we’ll be off!

Bye Bye for now!

Garry and Mike