Saturday 14th July – 0 Miles *BASTILLE CELEBRATIONS*

A day of rest for our battered and over worked machines. And to a lesser extent a day of rest for us too although, obviously, there remained our cultural obligations as ambassadors for the biking community ;0)

We had an extremely lazy start, getting up when we felt it was dry enough (it had rained in the night but seemed bright enough now) and aiming to go into Caen via l'autobus. Armed with a bus time table, camera's, wallets and our freshest attire (after nine days on the road, nothing was that fresh by now) we ventured up to the bus stop. After much deliberation and about 20 minutes needless waiting we concluded that the sign read something along the lines of 'due to the festivities there will be no bus service from this stop'. Plan B was an extremely expensive but very posh taxi into town. Nothing quite like arriving in style.

The town was quiet. Expecting that the celebrations proper would start much later, as is the way in mainland Europe, we took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing. We wandered the streets in the glorious sunshine (me usually hobbling behind Rob and Si with my knackered knee) taking pictures and admiring the architecture and history. We started at the harbor and walked up through the old cobbled streets until we re-emerged at the harbor with the required thirst. I nearly fell asleep in my first beer so had to have a coffee chaser! I soon got into the spirit though. Booking a table in the same restaurant me and Rob ended TME in and proceeding to squeeze in a pre diner bar crawl.

Diner was an adventure in itself. We went for the obligatory Kako (the specialty of the house – knuckle of ham cooked in cider for about 87 hours... this stuff just melts in your mouth!) and loads and loads of beers. It didn't take much for Rob and Si to be up on the tables dancing and I'm sure the chef whipping back our heads and pouring some mysterious liquid into our mouths added to the whole affair somewhat. There was a Stag party and a Hen party right next to us to the place was just jumping. Everyone was dancing around and having fun. It's such a rarity to have such a brilliant atmosphere in a restaurant, I didn't want the night to end. We went on from there to the bar next door for more beer and then started to get conscious about our return journey to camp. We tried the number the taxi driver had given us to no avail. Luckily the bar staff booked us a cab which turned up before we'd even finished our drinks!

Back to our tents and the sleep of the dead again... just wish I'd shut the vent on my tent properly as we had another storm in the night so I woke in somewhat of a puddle.