It’s been a gentle, uneventful day after a night spent tossing and turning wondering whether it was fair on the dogs to travel so far. Having reached Rouen it was still only a relatively short hop back to Calais whereas to continue would mean another four days of travel before reaching Aracena and then another five days back again stuck inside a small car with little chance to roam. Such are the insidious thoughts that permeate the hours around 4 a.m.

Unburdening myself this morning, Dorothy explained briefly that the dogs were happy, they slept much of the day at home and their pride of place in the car was cosy, comfortable and punctuated with regular strolls amongst the flower strewn Aires. Hidden subtext : shut up 😢.

Suitably chastised I fed them and after a brief walk Dorothy and I returned to the hotel to grab some breakfast. The car was pretty close to fully charged so we headed off.

At home, Tal and Perro get their first opportunity to get their toilet routine in at breakfast followed by a walk an hour later at which they are able to unburden themselves. This we duplicated with an hour’s driving after breakfast followed by a 40 minute walkabout in a delightful rural Aire.

And

This I particularly like …

The dogs however were uninterested in the flowers and far more interested in the small holes that emerged everywhere.

Both dogs began ripping into the earth, pushing their snouts deep into the ever enlarging hole in an attempt to find the absent troglodyte. Alas, presumably warned by the noise of digging accompanied by puffing and panting any small mouse or vole would be long gone. Still, fun was had by all.

The remainder of the journey was uneventful. Charging worked flawlessly and the i3 is averaging 6.6 km/kWh at a steady 100 km/h. We’re pretty much the slowest car on the road, but we’re one of the most economical. 😉

Our final stop before reaching Ibis budget Angoulême Nord was at Mansle, a village étape where we stopped for a cup of chamomile tea (which they didn’t have so we had some random herbal tea instead). Like many of the étapes, it was pretty run down but the centre held an odd sculpture surrounded by trees pollarded to within an inch of their lives.

We’ve charged outside the local Intermarche and we’ve just concluded dinner which much like last night but with a few notable additions consisted of salad, avocado, falafels, vegan cheese and pitta bread. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have a decent hot dinner. One can only hope. San Sebastián has some great seafood restaurants but we have the dogs, so it’s probably salad again 😢.

Bon voyage.