Mrs Norgren our B&B landlady obviously used to taking on board pilgrims, was one of those people who's friendliness just reached out and touched you.
Conversing with her over breakfast (her 10 words of English and our 2 of French) we discovered she has a daughter in Toulouse 22 years of age with a 12 year granddaughter - me thinks something lost in translation there !
Her Hot chocolate, Spanish style, while tasty was thick as syrup ! Henley keen to impress downed two to win him favorite son status !
In the midst of our in depth conversation i indicated jokingly that Henley not only couldn't speak French but also struggled to speak English - pretty true !
Our B&B lady came back at us in rapid French that we soon came to realise was her asking whether Henley was in fact a Donkey when at school - we both laughed !
Our first 10 kms of riding gave us a taste of things to come in the UK with constant undulations requiring continual climbs for little downhill relief !
We passed through Condom at the 22 km mark, a forgettable place other than its name !
I`d lost H on entry as he'd stopped to take a photo to send back to Jonesy to add to his collection of European village `porno` following the previous photo sent back of the poorly named Kuntzmuseum in Germany !
With Condom done and dusted we climbed 7 km to a gem of a place called Laressingle (or Laura Bingle as named by H) an amazing walled village complete with moat, drawbridge and chateaux. On a warm day this place would be crawling with tourists!.
Heading off H found his 2nd broken spoke making our journey to Eauze ( the next listed town with a bike shop) imperative !
Lunch enroute at Montreal (not Canada) had a macabre touch not because Henley somehow managed to charade his way into a baguette with Ham, chess, tomato, lettuce and Mayo but because the Church exterior has a cavity covered with glass revealing the burial of at least two bodies by the no. Of bones present !
After more undulations and hard work we finally arrived at Eauze early afternoon checking into our dead fly infested hotel and then going in search of a bike shop finding it in the guise of an all purpose repair shop that took anything from lawn mowers, to motorcycles to ATVs for repair !
True to the Mechanics one word of English H`s bike was fixed within an hour at a fair price and Henleys prized Canondale is now back in one piece.
Another relaxing afternoon with H still engrossed in his book - the best investment I've ever made !
We are now only 190 k s from the Spanish border after nearly having crossed France yoo hoo !
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