Sleeping was tough because it hurt whenever I tried to move around. I couldn't lay on either my back, chest, or left side. After being curled up on my right side for a long while, my hip would hurt. I managed to get enough rest but getting up was hard and once I was out of bed, I didn't want to get back into it so quickly.
I ate what food I had with me for breakfast, an apple and a banana. I hadn't seen much of the surrounding area the night before but given where the hotel was, I knew there wouldn't be much around of interest.
The shower was a self-cleaning unit down the hall. I waited until one was open, had a shower, and changed the dressing on my elbow. Again, pulling off the old gauze also painfully pealed away some of the scab that had formed. It was then that I realized that at the last minute I had packed some non-stick pads into my first aid kit. They are Adaptic Non-Stick dressings made by Johnson & Johnson and cost about $1/each. They are a 3 by 3 inch mesh that sits between the wound and the bandage. I put one of the two I had brought on. These immensely helped my elbow heal. I won't travel without these pads ever again.
Check out was 11am and I slowly got my stuff together. I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to ride at all without being in a lot of pain. But, I still had another 11 days set aside for bike riding. I had done some map work the night before to see if I could still get to Avignon given that I had already lost a day of riding (yesterday's rest) and wasn't sure how far I could go in a day. It looked like I could still make it doing reasonable mileage. Today's ride would be the deciding factor. Either I was too injured to continue or I could ride a bike without problems.
The first problem of the day was getting my gear down the stairs. This was a bare bones establishment and it didn't have an elevator. Carrying the bags down and then the bike, hurt.
After I loaded everything onto the racks, I realized that getting my leg over the sleeping bag and tent on the rear rack was going to be too painful. Instead, I found a curb that I could stand so that I didn't have to lift my leg too high to get it over the rear baggage.
I was surprised that nothing hurt once I was on the bike and moving. Bumps hurt my ribs and I couldn't take a really deep breath but rolling on a bike was fine. I was pleasantly surprised.
The hotel was on a busy street next to a main tollway. There was traffic going both ways and much of it was trucks. I was passing the big box stores that seem to litter the outskirts of France's cities. After about a mile, I saw a boulangerie and stopped. I found that getting off the bike was easier, some how, than getting on it. I bought a bagette and wolfed down 2 pain au chocolates.
I saw a pharmacy across the street and took the package the non-stick dressing had come in and handed it to the clerk. She nodded her head, disappeared into the back, and returned with a box of them for 15 Euros. Things were starting to go my way, again.
I rode the few miles back into Angouleme. It was crowded until I got to a mail highway and then I was by myself. I once again climbed the hill to Angouleme and continued past the town center. I rode through the city and out the other side. I stopped near a school (there were young people all around) that was next to a small mall whose main store was a supermarket. I bought some fruits, vegetables, chocolate, and a bag of potato chips that I consumed just outside sitting among lunching students.
I had ridden about 5 miles, up and down some inclines and was feeling OK. I tried to steer clear of any bumps in the road but and would involuntarily groan whenever I went over something.
I biked along gently rolling countryside. As usual, it alternated between woods and farmland.
Just outside of Angouleme, I rode along the la Charreau river, where I saw the first inklings of the valleys and gorges I was heading for.
In one village, I went past a house built into the rock.
Torsec was a typical village I passed this day.
I was riding along and saw this huge house right above the road. There were no signs identifying it and I assumed it was some old grand house that was now in private hands.
This view, that I had toward the end of the day, shows much of what I saw: wheat fields, trees, and villages in the distance.
About 5pm, as I pulled into the town of St. Severin, I saw an ad for a local hotel. I decided right there to call it a very successful day. I now believed that I could ride a "normal" day's distance and could reasonably plan to ride all the way to Avignon. I got a room in the hotel and found walking up the stairs to my second floor room harder than riding my bike!
I rested, showered, and then walked out to buy dinner fixings. The town of St. Severin consisted of a single street of shops with the hotel's location at one end. About halfway down was a greengrocer where I loaded up on vegetables to cook for dinner. Since he opened early the next morning, I decided to buy breakfast stuff when I knew better what I wouldwant to eat.
I walked to the other end of town, located the boulangerie, and returned to the hotel to eat. I had seen an ad in one of the village bars that a rugby match between France and Turkey was scheduled for that night.
I returned to my room, fried up the veggies in my usual sauce, at up, and settled in for the night by watching the rugby match on the TV in my room. It had a French commentary over an English one. It was confusing to understand anything being said by any of the commentators and when I got bored of the game, I turned it off and went to sleep.