DAY 4: BOUAYE: REST DAY
WEDNESDAY 16TH JULY

We woke up in our turret and looked out at a grey sky. This was a bit disappointing as it was our rest day and I was hoping to take full advantage of the swimming pool.

I still couldn't believe we were staying in such a beautiful place and just couldn't stop looking at it. It was such an amazing building, it was only one room deep but the facade was very wide to give it maximum impact. It certainly had that.

The owner served us a very good breakfast which as well as bread and jam included cheese, cold meat and cereal.

The breakfast room was so pretty



We had saved most of our washing for the rest day

We decided to go and explore the area on the basis that the grey was probably just early morning cloud and would burn off later. There was a lake, Lac de Grand Lieu, nearby and we thought we would have a look at that as we didn't want to do a long ride, it was a rest day after all!

It looked very beautiful in the mist

It wasn't cold - there was hope for the pool yet

Our ride took us through villages - the grey stone was certainly a thing of the past

We decided to head for a village called Passay, picking up a picnic lunch on route, as we could see from the map that there was a road that would take us down to the edge of the lake.

Passay was a pretty little village




We found a perfect picnic spot




It was so peaceful




We sat watching the birds for ages




They were totally oblivious to us

During the afternoon the sun started to come out so we headed back to the chateau as it was just so beautiful to be there.

I couldn't get enough of this place




Then there was the pool of course

We spent the rest of the afternoon lying by the pool reading and writing up our diaries. It had been a really nice restful day - even though we had somehow managed to cycle 35km.

In the evening we walked up to the restaurant we had been to the previous evening as there wasn't a sensible alternative and we knew this one was good.

Although we hadn't necessarily needed a rest day this early on in the trip (we had only done a total of 240km) it had been nice to stay somewhere for two nights - especially somewhere so amazing.