Last Day - Stage 8

The alarm sounded at 7.15am and I was pleased to find that we hadn’t been fried in the van overnight by the lightning. The storm had not had any effect on the weather as the sun was already splitting the pavement.
Tre grabbed some drinks and pastries from the services while I threw everything back into Rox ready to depart.
Our intention was to go to a spot which was very close to the start of the race and to stay on the north side of the road being used by the race. This meant we could escape straight after the cyclists had passed and not be prohibited in doing this by the road closures . . . We had an appointment late afternoon to collect two pooches and quite a trip to get there!
The drive that on Google maps said 9 minutes turned into about half an hour, as the mapping had a moment when it found it couldn’t get us across a railway line that it obviously thought it could.
Just before 9 am we were parked on the spot we had identified. Parked up in the shade I started to eat my croissant when a guy in a car approached and appeared to be giving me a piece of his mind as he drove past and then manoeuvred and parked back behind us. I ignored him and wondered if his comments were for someone on his hands free mobile and not me. He clambered from his car, put on a high viz too and wandered off. A few minutes later he returned and started to speak to Teresa. It transpired he had been driving around his area since 4am clearing debris from the storm and checking parts of the Tour route. He was Portuguese but living with his family nearby and was actually a really nice guy. Our guess about the phone call discussion had been proved right - he had been a little stressed with someone but not us. In any case he then droooed the bombshell that the road we were on (our escape road) had been highlighted for a road closure until 3pm - gulp!
Thankfully he then directed us to what he thought was the perfect spot for us to view and then escape with no road closures - only we only had five minutes to get there! Back in Rox we sped to where he had sent us and found a lovely spot under the trees for Rox to stay cool, while we walked 30m to the road side with our chairs to await the caravan and the race. The little country road was filling nicely with locals all along the shaded side of the road, so we joined the line along the verge.
The caravan arrived about 11.15am and Tre and
I took one side of the road each. The only onstacke to me winning the competition once more was a fairly large, no hefty - actually rather fat woman who insisted on constantly moving backwards to close my catch area while giving herself a large (well it was needed)section of coverage. I consoled myself with the thought of my treasures from yesterday. The caravan was brilliant once again and great fun with all the locals. There were a couple of small children with parents next to Teresa and so after the caravan we handed them our meagre haul, mostly sweets and some other small bits.
The sun moved and so did everyone along the road - to the other side of the road to make most use of the tree shade as we were back in the high 30’s for temperature.
At approximately 1.30pm the cyclists appeared exactly as per the official magazine timings had predicted. A small one man and then two man breakaways followed by the main peloton. That was the last of our tour sightings for this year!
We grabbed our chairs, hurriedly walked back to Rox and threw them in. We were then in and off - our drive home had started.
We drove the back roads to La Raffinie and then generally north to Les Giroux and then onto Thiviers. This stretch of the journey took us through one of the large wine producing regions of France, with fields of vines as far as you could see. We then headed west to Brantôme and north west to the outskirts of Angoulême. Just west of Champniers we got back onto the familiar N10 heading north home.
We drive into the driveway of home at 4.30pm, quickly got some essential bags from Rox and then jumped in the car to drive to collect the boys. We were back home with Loup & Sticky by 6.30pm - both of whom seemed to have had as good a time as we had, as all four of us then settled down for a little snooze.
Just over 6 days had flown by. We had been baked by the constant canicule every day and then boiled both whilst driving Rox and sleeping in her overnight. We were dusty, sore eyed from the hot dry winds while driving with windows open and generally completely knackered . . . But we have loved it and will do it all again, probably next year!
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