Up early to give time to remove all traces of our presence at this base camp. This achieved we handed over to the locals and departed.
Made excellent progress, crossing the Millau viaduct without incident. Stopped to photograph the position and structure for use back in Blighty. Paid the toll – we don’t want the locals reporting us.
Moved further north. The plan was to overnight at Montlucon. This proved a bad choice as the Tour de France got there first and had taken over the entire town and environs. Took a pincer movement decision and tried two other likely locations. Unfortunately the first of these was Cérilly – which was where the Tour was due to start the next morning and the 2nd – Saint-Amand-Montrond was where it ended the next day!! So all forward positions had been taken by the ‘enemy’!
It appeared we were being driven out of France by Le Tour de France which did nothing for Major Dickie’s sang froid!
We finally ended up in an excellent hostelry – La Vigne at Saint Pierre Le Moutier. Good bunks and excellent fodder!
Filed under: Diary Entry, Major Dickie | Tagged: Tour de France
