Monday August 4, 2014

We had a little bit of a lie-in this morning. As we did not know when the shops were going to open, we could take our time.  I was feeling a little run-down, I felt as if I was getting a cold.  We cycled towards the telephone shop, but Ralf wanted to check out one of the medieval gates.  We decided to follow the ramparts around the Town. Saint Lo was built in the middle ages to protect it from invading Norsemen.  Most of the Town was destroyed on June 6, 1944 from the allied bombings.  Hundreds of people took shelter in the underground area in the ramparts during the air raids, many others lost their lives.

The Porte au lait is one of the entrances protecting the south side of the Town.  The gate takes its name from the farmers who used to sell their milk in this area.

The Church de Notre Dame was badly damaged during the bombings.  The church still bears the scars.  Its damaged facade was not restored but was replaced with a wall that closed off the nave.

It was a really nice start to the day.

We got to the telephone shop just after it opened.  We found an interesting appointment system in place at the store. You gave your name and the nature of your business and then waited in turn.  Your name flashed on the screen and you went to the next salesperson.  Unfortunately, the salesperson could not speak English, her colleague could so we had to wait for her.  This made life very easy for us, we were able to get a new SIM card for the phone and a new SIM card for the data stick.   The funny thing was I couldn’t open the data stick from England, but I was able to open the one from New Zealand. I am now reusing the data stick from New Zealand, with a new sim card.

As we left the store we had a conversation with a French couple who are going to cycle in Dorset.  They leave tomorrow for 15 days.  We told them about our trip.   We have had this conversation many times before however, this conversation was held in a mixture of poor English and poor French.  We all understood each other and wished each other well in both languages.  After 4 days in France we can already have a conversation – not a very in depth one but still we can understand what people are saying and they can understand us.

We eventually left the store at around noon.  We went into the Tourisme to inquire about Municipal campsites and how we book them.  Some smaller towns have small ‘natural’ campsites.  They are supposed to be very basic, we weren’t expecting much from them, other than they are cheap.  The woman at the Tourisme told me all we need to do is show up at the campsite or call the number to reserve.  With my limited French I didn’t want to call and reserve, so we decided we would turn up and keep our fingers crossed that there would be space.

We grabbed a couple of toasted ham and cheese paninnis for lunch and eventually left Ste Lo at 1:30pm.  It was going to be a short ride to Tessy sur Vire.  We followed EV4 again along the River Vire.  Very relaxing following the river, the path was partially paved and partially packed limestone.  The bikes and ourselves were covered in dust by the time we got to Tessy sur Vire.

Along the river there was another Art in the Park type of art exhibition.

Remember the one in Lorne in Australia.  This was similar – art is in the eye of the beholder.

As Ralf remarked at one ‘art’ installation, it would have been better to have left it in the recycling bin.

We passed an area along the River that was being used by a canoe and kayak club.  The kids here were attempting to play water polo.

When we got to Tessy sur Vire the Municipal campsite was well sign posted and we were very pleasantly surprised at the size of it and the cleanliness of the utility block.  The utility block has two showers, two toilets, a room with two sinks and four sinks for dishwashing, there are even a couple of power outlets for us to use.  We went into the Town to find the Mairie (municipal office) to pay for a site.  Tessy closes on a Monday!!  Everything was closed, we decided to set up our tent and figured someone would come and check up on us at some stage or we would go into to the municipal office tomorrow and pay.  We settled in to our lovely little site by the river and I went for a shower – I was expecting cold water, but it was lovely and hot and lots of water pressure.  If all of the municipal campsites are this good it will save us a fortune and we won’t have to wild-camp.  This site cost €7.90.  We even have a picnic bench.  We were just putting our dishes away when a municipal worker came to the site – he took our €7.90 and wished us a good evening.  We were the only ones on the campsite.