Day 06 - Carcassonne to Chatellerault
Fri, 29/05/2009 - 16:29 — Garry Taylor
Beyond the Gallery Monaco Rally – Day 6
Good morning and Welcome to Day 6 of the extended tour!
We woke up this morning with a bit of a jump; the Housekeeping lady obviously didn’t appreciate that staying in bed beyond 8.10am whilst on Holiday was an acceptable thing to do.
But I think she saw Mike’s feet just in time, and with a “Pardon Monsieur!” she swiftly exited the room and returned from whence she came. Leaving us to sleep for another 20minutes!
You’d think after getting in excess of 7 hours sleep we’d be full of life and raring to go, but truth be told, we were just as tired as we were after 3 and a half hours sleep.
Still, no time to dilly dally, so I sampled the shower, which in my own opinion was the best of the trip so far, and probably the cheapest!
Mike, being about 3 feet taller than me wasn’t so keen on the “dwarf height” of the shower attachment.
After a basic but pleasant breakfast, it was back up to the room to check the online Guest Book and to sample the stunning view that was on offer from our Ibis Hotel...
After packing up our overnight bags (you’d think we’d have learnt to travel light by now..)
...we consulted the map to see which way to head...
...and then promptly ignored it in favour of Daniel 1.1.1, who had evidently had one too many in the bar the night before!
After slight manual intervention by Mike (who eventually convinced the Sat Nav that repeatedly sending us back to the same “Route Barree” in ever increasing circles was still not going to solve anything), we were soon driving through the streets of Carcassonne, admiring the roadside views...
After stopping to get the answer to Clue 1, “Go and play at the old City, but how many animals were related to Zebedee?”
(sorry Chip, it was the best we could come up with...)
We hastily checked that we would fit under the bridge...
...and headed out of town, skirting the old City of Carcassonne.
Before long, we were cruising down the Autoroutes’ in a generally Northern direction, following signs for Toulouse...
Once clear of all the traffic, it was time to give it plenty of this...
...which of course, burnt plenty of petrol, so we had a quick stop for our favourite fuel...
We then took a short lunch break, and Mike enjoyed a delicious meal of Chicken and Rat, whilst I went for the slightly safer option...
(to be fair, the picture doesn’t really do it justice, as it was actually delicious!)
After briefly consulting the floor for directions...
... we re-joined the motorway to clock up a few miles...
(don’t ask me why we’re in Gravel mode; perhaps the car and Daniel are in cahoots.)
Anyway, before long we were crossing the Dordogne...
...and then started heading up the hill of “our” deserted motorway to see what was the other side...
As you can imagine, neither of us were expecting to see a giant erection poking up from behind the trees!
...not to mention a giant eye!
But we carried on our merry way, dodging big arrows as we went...
and saw a classic super car of its time...(probably)
Before long, we were nearing the capital...
...so we decided to celebrate in the usual style (sorry Sis, we ran out of smarties during the first 4 days trying to work out the answers....)
We’re just kidding about the wine obviously, otherwise seeing things like this might actually concern us...
OK, now to a more serious part of our day; So as not to make you think the trip is all fun and games, we decided to take a bit of a break from the driving, and make an educational field trip to Oradour sur Glane whilst we were in the area; the picture tells the sad story...
As you can imagine, it was a very sombre place, yet also very fascinating. Walking through the old town, it was a bit like someone had taken a snap-shot in time. The place has remained exactly how it was found after the terrible events of 1944.
Here are just a few pictures we took.
We both left there a lot quieter than when we had arrived.
So anyway, after that small depressing interlude, let’s get on with the day...!
Having rejoined the road, we were immediately faced with a dilemma...
We discussed options for a while, then made our decision...
(sorry Ginge!)
On the way, we spotted a corset in the middle of the road...
...and would you believe it, drove straight past Gordon again!
We decided we would stop at around 7pm this evening, as we had made pretty good progress, so Mike duly phoned up an Ibis in Chatellerault and in his bestest French accent, secured us a room for the night. We arrived at bang on 7pm.
Today’s mileage was 362 which considering the number of breaks we took, we were quite pleased with.
After a pleasant meal in the attached restaurant, we retired to the bedroom to start the nights work.
We thought we take a moment to make a couple of comments on a few of the Guest Book entries;
Mark Watson at CTS; you’re in line for the “earliest posted comment” award of 06.04am. Good effort! Of course, that does lay down the gauntlet to others out there and don’t forget, we have three luxury Super yachts moored in Monaco waiting to give away...
Mystery “M”; you have no idea how many “M”s I have spent the night with in cheap hotel rooms! And it turns out Mike has bought Chocolates for an awful lot of M’s too! (not that you shouldn’t feel special of course...!)
Steve @ Motormall; Don’t worry about the tyres and brakes. That’s the least of your worries...!
Linds; I’m really sorry about the banana.
Dad (Taylor); this ones just for you...
JB; SPAM?? We’ve only just started !!
Geoff @ CTS; THANK YOU VERY MUCH !! J
Matt; Honestly, the length's some people will go to in order to win a Yacht; ok,ok, you're under consideration!!
So that’s the end of Day 6, and you’ll all be delighted to know that there is only one day left (assuming we don’t miss the boat), so you’re mailboxes will soon be much clearer places!
Here is today’s route for those interested...
All that remains is to upload and publish – not quite so easy tonight as the wireless signal is less than good (some may say “Poor”) so i'm curently sat 3 floors below our room outside the lift.
Anyway, try not to worry, we’ll cope, so until tomorrow, goodnight and farewell from us both.
Garry and Mike