France in May:- Maybe not - but you do get some bank holidays!

It did stop raining once at least!

There was a lot of weather in France too! We built the month round three stays of about a week each in mobile homes, with the rest of the time in hotels. After spending the night in Dunkerque we drove down to Normandy, found the campsite in Benouville (Pegasus Bridge -  a lot of Dutch and a few Brits with caravans) - and slowly decamped into the mobile home (a very comfortable and modern one). We had just about finished this when it began to rain, and it barely stopped for a week! Bob managed one riverside ride on a somewhat better day, but it was a grim time for rain, wind and cold. The excellent indoor pool was the best Ruth managed in terms of exercise! We made some trips to places we knew from spending each Easter holiday in Normandy during the nineties, we had some pleasant lunches out, we cooked using first class ingredients and we watched a lot of  stuff on the laptop and French TV! On the second Sunday the second round of the Presidential election took place. We were jubilant at the result- of course - but it was interesting to observe that so much less expensive advertising and campaigning  was evident than in a UK general election. Is this austerity or a more intelligent electorate?

The next stop was Availles Limouzine, so that we could spend time with George and Gregory. The weather got better and better as we drove down  - and by the time we arrived in this delightful little spot 10km from Le Queroy (but over both a departmental and regional border) it was - as had been predicted - scorchio! In the years we have been visiting the area the hotel has been dilapidated, closed, bought and renovated by the council and run by a series of couples. It is now a Logis de France. We didn't eat dinner there, and the WiFi was a bit odd, but the rooms are spacious and very tastefully furnished. We enjoyed our stay and the Thursday little market outside. As G and G were very busy with the business and a school trip we weren't able to take them out for a meal, so instead  raided the supermarkets and laid on a spread at their house.

The moles had been there first!

Next we headed over to the Vendée. This was another time-warp stay. We had been to the area three times about ten years ago and thought it was worth a punt! We had found a campsite that would be open and looked well-located in the forest south of St Jean de Monts. We had chosen a cheap and small "cottage", which turned out to be serviceable but was distinctly past its sell-by date in comparison to some of the flash stuff on the site. We wondered why we were put there when the place was virtually empty, but as the week progressed we realised:- French Bank Holidays in May! Foreigners can only look on in amazement and speculate as to when the ponts, bouchons and engorgements will actually happen! The 1st and 8th happen irrespective of day of the week. (This time it was Tuesday.. we stayed off the roads but needed have bothered!) Ascension and Pentecost happen on a Thursday and Monday - 11 days apart and on dates that depend on Easter! Who knows when the hordes will descend? For a few days the facilities were barely open - including the bar where the WiFi was available -, the big jolly bloke on the staff gave daily kisses as he hung around doing nothing, and the indoor pool was a pleasant place to be! By Wednesday evening we sank without trace amongst most of the population of Nantes and Niort, and the big bloke donned a Mickey Mouse suit! So it stopped being a quiet hideaway, but nonetheless the town is OK! Its network of cycle paths has been improved further and is extensive, well-advertised and signed. There is even a Station de Velos at a crucial point with water and air! After the nice man at the bike shop had fixed the brakes on Ruth's bike we did some rides, but the sea temperature was still not good enough - so we had an afternoon in a very pleasant public swimming pool. Excellent food and wine in town, but a bit expensive - catering as it does for French tourists with the many holiday apartments. We left on the Saturday of Ascension weekend, and as we packed up it started to rain!
The three days booked in Agen Premiere Classe were as bad as one can imagine. It was a disgustingly wet drive down. A key road to the hotel had been closed causing yet more navigational mayhem, and then the automatic check-in didn't work! We went over to the Casino mall across the road to kill time and look for a WiFi zone. Nothing that was advertised worked, and the rain just kept coming! Eventually we got into the room, and we barely left it for two days or so! Nothing touristic was worth doing in the rain, things closed down on Sunday and we just hunkered down in the  (very intimate!) warmth with wine, cold food and the laptop! Fellow guests included a set of British guys driving some asphalting lorries down to somewhere and stuffed by the weekend road regulations in France.

By the Tuesday morning we were more than ready to leave, and the rain stopped, giving us a good clear run down via Bordeaux and Toulouse to Agde, where we spent the final week in pretty good weather! we were now between Bank Holidays, so Mimosas was fairly quiet, and we had another excellent mobile with plenty of kit and (now) free WiFi on each plot! There is also an improved cycle path down to the river, and the outdoor but slightly heated swimming pool was in working order. So a good week - at last! We did a number of rides around the different parts of Agde - including a new one across the river - to which we went by ferry!

For the Bank Holiday weekend (!) Agde was en fête with an amazing spectacle of costume, craft, dramatisations and so on celebrating its history (2 600 years allegedly). 

We stayed until the Tuesday, then packed the bikes into the body of Yvette and drove to Perpignan for one last night in France. En route we made a quick stop in Canet, and then thought of moules in the sunshine in St Cyprien; but the weekend must have been just too lucrative and tiring for the restauranteurs as by 2.10pm no-one would serve us! Supermarket ham sandwich then!
We took Yvette next day to her usual resting place, and were transported to the station for the Barcelona airport train. Needless to say that journey had its incident:- but that's another story!