Progress update: I have arrived! I was on the road for 7 hours yesterday – actual driving time slightly under 6 hours.
I had a good breakfast at the hotel in the morning, then checked out, but before starting my long drive I got the tram in to the centre of Orléans for the morning.
Located on the banks of the river Loire, the city is about the same size as Winchester. It didn’t feel like a city – but did have the infrastructure (good public transport / tram system) to make getting around easy. I loved the narrow streets.
Being December the Christmas market was open – not jam packed but enough was going on to keep me interested. I also visited the Hôtel Groslot – a mansion which was City Hall until 1984. These days it is free to go in and wander around the rooms.
In the afternoon I got in the car and set the sat nav for Lectoure. A long drive lay ahead but the route relatively simple – About 20km outside of Orléans I would take the A20 which would stretch all the way down to Toulouse. The whole journey was clear – traffic busier around Limoges but nothing too difficult and certainly not a “traffic jam” as I would know them from the M25…….
I arrived in Lectoure just after 8pm. Too late to go to the supermarket to get some dinner so I went to a nearby restaurant and had steak and chips for dinner, which was very good.
FH.
