The next day, with me feeling emptier than a presidential candidate’s promises, but fortified by Imodium and a stubborn desire not to give in and let the bug win, we set off at the crack of noon into a day that had transformed into something rather warm, sunny and above all dry!

Owing to my less than perfect state, we decided to take the boring but easy option of using the motorway to get some miles under our wheels, and headed south.

We made it to Rouen in brilliant sunshine before my energy reserves ran out and I was so grateful when, at Sarah’s behest, Miss Sat Nav pointed out a very conveniently situated Campanile hotel in the outskirts, which proved to be spot on. The staff were very friendly and helpful and gave us a ground floor room whose door opened out onto the car park, so that we could park our bikes directly in front of our room.

Later I was feeling fevery and pretty rotten, and couldn’t face eating the meal that I had ordered in the restaurant. The staff were superb, cancelled the items we didn’t have and deducted them from the bill. I was feeling so crap that I had to abandon Sarah in the restaurant and I went back to the room and slept and sweated for twelve hours.

We had both pushed ourselves too hard, me the day before and Sarah the day after her fever, and so we decided to stay on an extra day to recuperate. It had finally dawned on us that the only real time pressures were those that we were creating and that if we took an extra day to get down to the Dordogne then so what. Much better to arrive refreshed than knackered or not at all.

So we did nothing but rest, eat and sleep for another day, after which we were both beginning to feel much more human and ready to travel again šŸ™‚