Eleanor, Day 15

We woke this morning to rain in Arès, but by after breakfast it had passed. Chores today included, as well as shopping and the usual drain, flush and refill, buying and refilling oil for the van.

Because we were about 50km the wrong side of Bordeaux, it was a long drive to Angoulème, and we ended up stopping for lunch at a lay-by en route. I had bought a "pain d'Aquitaine", just because, and very good it was, too. 

We arrived in Angoulème in the early afternoon, and were lucky enough to find a parking space and got out to explore, just as the heavens opened. But we found various sites associated with our period, including a church in a street named for the Taillefer (? Can't remember how you spell it!) family, who were the family of none other than the eponymous Isabelle of Angoulème, wife of John Lackland and thus one of my forebears!

And we had, of course, already seen her effigy in Fontévraud. So that was good. Most of the other stuff we saw was more modern, although the market hall is on the site of the castle that Eleanor would have known, so we saw where it was. 

We were running out of time by then, plus we were cold, so we went back to the van and drove down to the car park where we are spending the night, and had a cup of tea. Then the SW went off to walk round the ramparts, and I visited the nearby comic strip museum, which was not very good as the layout of the exhibits and the understandable lack of light made it difficult to see. It ought to have been fascinating, but was rather headachy.

Then back and read and knitted for a bit until supper, and now reading in bed, wrapped in my rug. The van warms up very fast, but gets cold even faster!