Day 9. Chasseneuil-du-Poitou to Montignac-Charente. 75 miles

Day 9. Poitiers (Chasseneuil-du-Poitou) to Angouleme (Montignac-Charente). 75 miles
Set off on a route avoiding the city of Poitiers, which involved a climb for the first few miles. But thereafter I was on wide, quiet, country roads with only gentle ups and downs.
Lunchtime break was at Civray, a beautiful stone built town with a series of
interconnected squares and an amazing church, mostly in the Norman style, with Richly painted walls.

Mid afternoon we crossed over the works for the new high speed railway from Tours to Bordeaux, and for the next few miles the roads were anything but quiet with lorries presumably
delivering materials for the railway. We met up at the village of Charme where we visited the couple who own the house on Yell where we stayed last summer. John and Lois are both artists. They spend the summer in France and the winter in Shetland. Their house is two old stone farm houses knocked into one, and they have a pair of studios built from the stones of a barn that fell down. Behind the house is an extensive, organic kitchen garden. Everything is further on than at St Ives, not surprisingly. For example, their garlic crop was hanging up to dry. We had a glass of elderflower cordial, and a very enjoyable chat about art, Shetland, gardening.
A few more miles brought us to Montignac-Charente, another campsite on an island in a river. Quiet and partly shared. Toilets and facilities fine, but not a good as last night. Did some washing.

One of the tent poles has frayed badly. They're Magee of some kind of plastic. We managed to give it some support with some aluminium poles we'd brought for hitching up an awning, plus some string (thanks again to Rosemary Hill for suggesting a ball of string is a good thing to have for emergencies). We'll be looking for a camping tomorrow.
Tomorrow's journey will be a good bit shorter - only about 80km

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