Day 13 – Wednesday 27th June

After such a hot and strenuous day, traversing half of mid-western France, we opted to spend the day at the gite .

So after a leisurely breakfast it was of to the sun loungers to give the reading matter a hammering. I have finished the Kellerman that I started last week and I am well into a Jack Frost story. First Frost is written by James Henry, actually to fellers, supposedly in the style of R. D. Wingfield, Frosts original creator. To be quite honest I am not over keen on the style. It works well enough when converted for TV but it all seems bit light weight as a read. However, as it is set in Thatcherite Britain I feel quite at home.

As the day progressed so did the temperature levels. At one point I brought the thermometer out from the kitchen. Mid afternoon it was reading 30 + deg C in the shade. This is of interest as the interior temperature of the gite never seems to get any higher than 22 deg C. Although, when I returned it later it didn’t get back below 25.

Which is why I was sitting outside, writing this, at ten to midnight. It was hot and clammy. My wife had just gone up to bed and I still had the remains of our 2nd bottle of red to see off.

I also noticed that the quiet. No bees, no other insects, best of all no mosqitoes. Most unusual there are no owls calling.

Maybe the heat was too much for them too. There was no air movement either.

Occasionaly I could see and hear a bat as it performed its aerial gymnastics in search of its prey.