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21.06.08 Saturday
Montmorillon to Moussac.
An early start this morning after being awoken by a (single) noisy lorry going past at 4:50 followed by a very local cuckoo who wished to be noticed.
After breakfast from the boulangerie in the town, then up the hill and off, past the books & writing area of town (never did quite figure that out), past the infirmary for pilgrims and out to the agricultural college. This being Saturday morning it was very quiet (does it take long to teach French farmers how to fill in EU farming grant forms), and we were soon out onto the green lanes.
These made a very pleasant way of getting the 8 or so miles to Lussac-Les-Chateaux. This was another delightful town which the GR approached via the old (ie small and winding) roads into the town. As it was 11am then a coffee was duly ordered in a bar in the square.
The route from here followed the old railway line south alongside the banks of the Vienne river. This we had not seen for days so greeted like a lost friend.
The tree lined sides of the old railway line were most welcome as by this time the temperature was staring to rise. This was only really noticeably when you came out of the trees. At this point we tended to speed up and dash to the next area of shade.
Along the route was the superbly renovated old station at Persac (still with the station name engraved over the front door lintel). Don’t know if the deeds of the house prescribes them to mow the area of GR that goes through their land, but it was certainly well maintained.
Come mid afternoon we ambled into Moussec a small village of 700 souls, 2 bars, a village store and a camp site.
The camping fee for the night for both of us is 3.90€ which would have been the lowest camp fee we had ever paid if the camp fee at Montmorillon hadn’t been 3.35€. How can they run these sites at such a low cost? For that you get hot showers plus all the normal facilities.
Tomorrow we hope to follow the old railway further south, if we can find it ok.
The Vienne is still a sizable river at this point about the size of the Severn at Bewdley and all the rivers in this region are fast dropping to their summer levels. The campsite is next to an old broken weir and a few canoeists produced nostalgic memories for one of us.
Tomorrow we are into Limousin a new department and need to brave the vagaries of a tourist office to get more info re campsites so we have some idea of were Geoff will meet us.