Brive-la-Gaillarde

Brive-la-Gaillard.

It is home to one of my oldest Skype friends, so with great anticipation I set off from the farm. We decided to use Sally’s back wheel instead of mine as the rim had split even more. We swapped it over and tied on my old wheel to the carrier. The bike shop was just fantastic and sold me a whole new wheel and swapped over the gear and the tyre while I waited. And it did not break the bank.

I found my way into Brive and made a bee-line for the tourist office. I wanted to thank in person Karine who had sent me the photos six

months earlier for use on my blog. But she worked out of a different office so it was not to be.

I meet up with Christine outside the church in the middle of town. While I was walking a demonstration against the new labour law was in progress. Apprehension soon turned to relief when I saw a bunch of Gendarmes standing around with big smiles on their faces, obviously without a care in the world.

Christine is the sixth correspondent I have meet in person on this trip. We chatted over a coffee for about 2 hours in a sunny square before we parted company probably never to meet again in person. She was very disappointed not to meet Sally but when I showed her the old wheel she understood why. I went to the open air market but it had just closed so I missed my photo opportunity but took photos of the empty market anyway. It really is as beautiful as the photos on the opening chapter.

Once back at the farm I spent several hours doing maintenance on the two bikes ready for the next section of the trip. Sally now has new brakes and my bike had lots of little tweaks to make the ride easier. That evening we chatted away to the farmer and his wife after we had cooked yet another meal in the kitchen. We both agreed it was time to hunt down a gas cooker for the rest of the trip.