Day 16. Rain Rain Rain!

Sunday 15th August
45 Miles!

Susie

RAIN RAIN RAIN

James

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN and it's still Raining! (11.16pm)

It started raining as we left the motel and got harder and harder.

Our Paris Motel where the motel doberman was left guarding our bikes

Set off as the rain started and waved goodbye to our nice motel landlord. A long trek through a huge forest (in the rain.)

The maze like forest has long avenues disappearing into the rain

With crossroads every few miles

We stopped for lunch under an awning of closed shops and had sausage rolls.

a romantic lunch spot 

After that it was open hills and plains and the rain got heavier. We headed for a campsite near Blandy which is a lovely village with a castle on a hill, where we bought gin and tonic

Blandy. This is probably a lovely village when it isn't raining.
The castle is on the village green.

At around 30 miles we found the campsite only for it to be... CLOSED DOWN!

A high point in our Journey

Unfortunately the campsite is shut down! The next campsite is 15 miles on. Rain is now torrential- lashing across the fields, and the roads are like rivers. 

This is a real river, but not so different from the rest of the roads

So still in the pouring rain we cycled on for another 15 miles to a 2nd then 3rd campsite! 

We tried to take a shortcut under a railway, but ended up in a field and had to double back. Finally made fontainbleau forest and went looking for a campsite in Samois, but it was proving hard to find, so we went on to the next at Samoreau (3 miles further) as it got a good review (and so more likely to exist) The area is nice, very rich with huge houses, and the Seine is pale green/blue flowing through rocky gorges. The campsite is nice, we put up the tent in the rain and made a canopy from the emergency blanket so we could cook.

Washed clothes and dried them in the campsite tumble drier, and talked to some very wet students on their way home to Manchester from Switzerland.

Made an awning from space blanket which gave enough shelter for Susie to cook up loads of meat and rice YUM!

Beef stroganoff and rice

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