I woke up and looked out the window to check on the weather. To my surprise, the sky was clear. This was some kind of an illusion because it soon clouded up.
By the time I got packed up, hit the boulangerie and market in St. Paul du Bois, the sky looked like it would rain any moment. I left the hotel and headed back to the highway going south. It was relatively flat, straight road that wasn't too busy, it being a Saturday an no commuting. The views were farm fields and pastures. Amazingly, I didn't take yet another picture of this view!
After about 8 miles, or so, I came to the town of Argenton-Chateau. It was at the top of a hill adjacent to the l'Argenton river. The view over the river, as usual, was very pretty.
There was a weir across the river at a natural cataract.
The town square was a large area that was deserted but must be a huge marketplace on the right days. I rest a bit and ate a banana. I rode around the town checking things out and found a boulangerie selling whole wheat bagettes. I eagerly bought one (and a pain au chocolate) and found it to be very tasty. After this, I got much more selective in the bagettes I would buy and was always on the look-out for whole wheat ones. I think I managed to find about 4 or 5 of them throughout my time in France.
My way out of Argenton-Chateau was downhill on a narrow, main road. Thankfully, it was a Saturday and there wasn't much traffic. I turned off onto a rural road after about 1 mile. On that road, I went by this tiny church.
This road followed the l'Argenton river through farm and pasture lands.
As I crossed this bridge over the river it started to rain huge water drops.
I put on my rain coat and kept riding. The rain was steady but not too bad so I kept riding. At a fork in the road, I was looking at my map when two older bike riders road up and offered help. After some brief French, they rode with me to proper road. They were out for a day ride and were going in a different direction. We smiled a lot, shook hands and went our separate ways.
Then, it really started raining. I was in the middle of fields with no structures to get under. I managed to get under trees on the side of the road but it wasn't long before the dripping of the branches was worse than the rain. For the next hour, I would find myself under trees as often as I was on the bike. It got so bad, that at one stop, I put on my rain pants. I don't do this often as they have no vents and are not a breathable material. They kept me dry but very hot. I took them off as soon as the rain stopped, which was in a relatively short time.
As I was heading into Bressuire, a large town, I saw the two older bike riders putting one of the bikes into a car. They waved me over and tried to explain something to me that I didn't understand. Eventually, it became clear that the one not in the car was inviting me over to his place for lunch. I immediately accepted the offer and followed him through the busy streets of Bressuire to his house about a mile away.
If I got his name, I don't remember it. He didn't speak any English. His wife spoke some and we were able to have a wide ranging conversation while eating. We spoke about bike riding (she was a rider, as well), touring, a bit about their lives, some about mine, and earthquakes! I also found out what they were trying to explain to me at the car: the two guys are twin brothers. It was a great, spontaneous way to eat lunch. Here they are in the small kitchen where we ate.
By this time, it was after 2pm and I still had 40 miles to go! Since it had been raining, I had put my road map in the rear pocket of my rain jacket. The man I had lunch with road me to the outskirts of town. It was there that I discovered that I had left my map at his house. I mentioned this to him and he said that I should keep riding and that he would have his wife drive and find me and deliver my map. She found me about 2 miles past where I left her husband. Needless to say, I no only enjoyed meeting and eating with this couple, but was thankful that they were so willing to help me out.
It rained off and on for the rest of my ride and I didn't take many pictures. If I had, they all would have looked like this.
I rode hard and faster than normal. The direct route to Niort was on a main road that went due south. It went directly over the terrain, which means it was up, down, up, down. The few cars on the road went fast and I didn't like riding on it. I tried to get on a side road but got lost and ended up back where I had started. So, I stayed on the main road and went as fast as I could.
The route markings became confusing where the road I was on turned southeast in the town of Champdeniers-St. Denis. Eventhough I asked someone for directions, I ended up heading southeast instead of southwest and had to backtrack through small villages on tiny roads to return to my intended route.
Niort is a big city and all the signs are for expressways heading into it. I finally found the small road I wanted and rode it into the city. By this time, I was very tired and running on desire only. I was following signs to the city center, which took me over its highest point, right next to the water tower. I arrived at 8:45pm.
I called Maxime, my host, from town's main square, which was under construction. I really like how they separated the cars from the pedestrians on this road.
Here a close-up of the same scene.
Maxime didn't live far away and we walked their fairly quickly. He lived in an apartment on the third floor with a spiral staircase with a timed light. It seemed to always go out before I could get all the way to the top. We left my bike locked to a pipe at the bottom of the stairs inside a locked entryway. His place had two floors. On the bottom was a large living space that included a kitchen area behind a counter. Up a spiral staircase was his bedroom and the bathroom.
It was quite late by the time we got all my stuff up into his place. His planned dinner wasn't vegetarian so he dug some frozen quiche out of the freezer and heated up some pumpkin soup out of a box. It was very tasty. In fact, I would start buying and making these soups for dinners from here on.
We talked quite a bit and eventually I rolled out my bag on Maxime's futon and went to sleep.