Another driving north day heading to Chateauroux. To some extent it was familiar territory having explored the Lot, Dordogne and Vezere in previous trips. The one exception was to visit Souillac which is on the Dordogne but which I have either passed by on the peage or skirted West to visit family. Anyway the departmental road took me there this time, an ideal place for a break. In fact the first part of the journey to Brive was all on nice country roads starting steeply up from Cahors on the Lot, steeply down to Souillac on the Dordogne and then up and down again to Brive on the Correze. It was then A-20 (non toll) to Limoges for a very short charge in a Novotel car park before completing the journey to Chateauroux on the A-20 topping up for tomorrow at a lovely little charging station across the road from Marcel Dassault airport. As well as its location in rolling fields there is a very nice little hotel/restaurant ideal for a coffee and a comfort stop while the car charged. It was then a short journey into the ibis in the town centre. Both charging station and hotel have been used before. There was time for an afternoon stroll from the hotel. Quite a change from my last visit when it was cold and drizzling but not today, mid 20s and strong sunshine. Being France most restaurants are I sat outside. So far I have been lucky when eating out that there have been very few smokers. That was not the case here. I have gotten used to eating in smoke free places so it was noticeable. I am glad to say not to the point of spoiling my dinner. Just a reminder of how smoking is treated differently in other countries. The sunset has been a pretty good one so the headline shot is from the hotel room as the sun went down and then below a wide shot of the contrails criss crossing the sky just after sunset. Keeping with Chateauroux there follows a selection of photos to give an idea of the major buildings. A few photos from Souillac follow and I’ll finish with the view that I awoke to in Cahors this morning.

For orientation there is an outline map is here.

A memorial to the chldren who die in war

These are from the charging station by Marcel Dassault airport

Now how about this for the aeroplane buffs, the only Qatar Air Force Boeing C-17, from my hotel window!

The Dordogne at Souillac

Canoing anyone

More busy birds

I can’t remember when I last used one of these but I am sure it was not so clean. :-)

There must be a reason I like Le Chartreuse at Cahors. Maybe its the wonderful food. Who knows?