Vendome to Chateau Renault – 32km
15C
Terrain: country roads and some unexpected off-road.

Uh oh! As my little nephew Luca would say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was about 3km in. I usually try to get round road blocks one way or another but without wire clippers, this one was a no go!

Fortunately although the detour was a little muddy it only added on about 1km.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phew! I’m through.

Fortunately, the rest of today was pretty uneventful. Although the wind was pretty strong, at least Bob is nice and heavy and keeps us both grounded!

I also had a really friendly looking donkey sidle up beside me behind his fence while I was running along. Never thought I gave off particularly friendly horse/donkey vibes due to my residual childhood fear but this guy was full of the joys of life and made me smile.

Other wildlife sightings along the way today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about this one but I came across a few and they’re really long!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve found more podcasts to listen to also to keep those brain cells ticking over.   I really enjoyed the NPR TED radio hour podcast. I just love TED, such an amazing platform for sharing knowledge, ideas, innovation and inspiration.

Each podcast episode focuses on themes like creativity/leadership etc and draws on different TED talks, interviewing various speakers. So today, I was listening to Sting and others talking about creativity. Fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too much to see in Chateau Renault apart from perhaps, unsurprisingly, a chateau!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a gorgeous wild flower garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just to finish for today, I’ve started reading Dawn French’s autobiography (which is indeed providing some giggles). It’s also very touching and she talks so fondly of her grandmother that she expressed exactly how I felt about mine when she was alive and still do (for anyone new to this blog, my grandmother’s journey as a refugee after the second world war was the primary inspiration for taking on this challenge to raise funds for the red cross):

“She is loved because she loves. What more is there?”

Tomorrow I’m off to Tours and going to take a rest day there (maybe two if I’m feeling greedy). Really looking forward to a little rest!