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24.05.07
Donneville to St Jean de Thomas.
Woke up to a dry tent, no dew, then heard the first drops of rain, Tony’s tent under a tree so a rapid packing up of stuff managed to secure dry packs and everything for the day but the rain teased us all morning never raining hard but occasionally needing the capes. We arrived in Carolles just as the shops were closing at 12:30 m- anaged some shopping but the small supermarche was closed till 14:30. 2 bieres of elastic time ensued as the rain had now started in earnest. After doing the necessary shopping (tomorrow being Sunday) it was still raining and so we started to walk the final 4 miles along the cliff path to St Jean de Thomas. The path was a true cliff path and went up and down a bit and was somewhat overgrown so everything from mid thigh down was soon soaking wet and making squelching noises. There should have been fine views of le Mont St Michael (of which more over the next few days), but the visibility was too poor to see anything.
As we arrived in St Jean the wind picked up and signs for Chambres d’hote started to look very appealing. Trying to dry out in tents the size of ours while still raining is impossible. After the bureau of the campsite was not open at 17:10 and the temperature was starting to drop we found lodging with an elderly French madame (Madame Bollet) with no English who lit a fire to dry out our boots, using a bellows to get another log going, I don’t think I have seen someone use a bellows for real since I was a child.
On the way through the various villages en route, there were some very interesting styles of architecture, here a turret in the roof, there a boat mosaic built into the wall.