Sunday 10th October 2021

This morning we headed south stopping to service the van at a service point we saw signposted along our route. We stopped for the day at a parking place next to a former abattoir which now seems to have been turned into an outdoor theatre. We got out our bikes for the first time on this trip. We had to pump up the tyres as they had all lost a lot of pressure since we last used them on our summer trip to Scotland.

We know this spot well - we stayed here overnight in December 2016. The old abattoir building is on the left and the new banked seating on the right. Our parking place is behind the seating.

We are parked between two canals running parallel. Also running parallel with the two canals is the River Garrone,.which rises in the Spanish Pyrenees and eventually joins the Gironde and flows out to sea at Bordeaux. When our tyres were pumped up we took a ride along the smaller of the two canals.

The walking and cycling track along the canal is nice and level - very pleasant to ride on.

We saw these Parasol mushrooms growing on the canal bank.

Nearby there is a nuclear power station with two reactors and two huge cooling towers. The cooling water comes from the Garrone. France produces about 70% of it's electricity from nukes.

There were some boats moored on the canal but we didn't see any going anywhere.

There was another van here when we arrived but it left soon after we got back from cycling. Later on a couple of cyclists arrived and pitched their tent on the grass behind the bins in this picture.

Today we travelled 55 miles (89 kilometres). We are at: N44.10554 E0.8857

Valence  Street View