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07:05 Up and out of bed. That was a bit tough. I’ve decided to head south towards Saint Lô. It’s probably a day and a half away. There’s neither camping nor a youth hostel in Saint Lô.
07:43 It’s shaping up to be a bright day. The sky is clear. It’s still cold out. Top temperatures of up to 13°C today, up to 19°C by Wednesday.
07:52 Route to Saint Lô pencilled (highlighted) in. East for a few kilometres, then south from Isigny-sur-Mer. I’ll see if I can camp at La Bouge d’Elle. From there, I can either track south along back lanes or else join another cycle route that tracks south-south-west to near Hébecrevon before turning East to pass through Agneaux and then arrive at Saint Lô. The two tracks are parallel for the first several kilometres. Packing now, then a café breakfast augmented by fresh fruit.
08:22 I’ll get lunch (maybe the Plat du Jour?) in Isigny-sur-Mer. Shop for dinner there too. Just a snack should be fine. Water refills for the afternoon and morning too. Won’t need a 4kg load of water for the morning. 2kgs will be enough.
08:44 Packed! Checkout, trip to the post office to post notebook 1 home, breakfast, hit the road. €79.40 for the hotel.
08:53 On the street.
09:02 Post office opens at nine on a Saturday. The tea shop opposite seems to be out of business. The charcuterie sold me a ham quiche for €1.70. Now I’m going to get a tartine in the café and then visit the PO.
09:18 €4.20 to post the notebook, including the price of a padded envelope.
09:26 €3.70 for a piece of bread with butter and cheese and some variety of outrageously sweet-looking confection. Sitting on a bench in the bright but still cool sun opposite the École de Musique.
Oh, interesting: a cheese sandwich implies ham.
09:43 Heading East.
10:20:55
10:10 Crossing the motorway which delimits the town.
10:32:19 
10:37:48 
10:45:19 
10:45:31
11:45 4.5km to go to Isigny-sur-Mer. This road is a big one, even though it’s marked in white on the map1.
11:48:41
12:46 Arrived in a café in the town square. I’ve ordered the Plat du Jour, The one I didn’t understand. I’ve no idea what I’m about to get. The starter involves eggs, the main course probably meat, because I was offered a choice between ‘medium’ and ‘well done’.
12:59:26 
12:59:42 
13:12:39
12:56:52
So I got some kind of a chunk of meat - beef probably. Once I would have relished it. Now I can’t even bring myself to put it in my mouth. I couldn’t believe the effort involved to slice it!
The sky is still clear and bright but the wind was really hammering into me from the north east, especially as I got closer to Isigny-sur-Mer.
I’m thinking about pressing on past La Bouge d’Elle (the wooded hill) and moving closer to Saint Lô so I can get there in time for lunch tomorrow. The waitress was a bit disappointed that I didn’t eat my wrinkled piece of fried meat and offered to give it to me in a bag. The egg mayo starter and the chips with the meat have enough calories in proteins, fats and carbs to power me through the afternoon. I’m having apple pie for dessert.
13:18 …which was very good - piping hot, with cream - and now the waitress has talked me into a cup of tea. I’ll hang about here for another half an hour. My shoulders were beginning to complain as I got closer to the town. I deserve an hour’s rest!
Just saw an identically dressed couple go by - slim, grey crew cuts, gold-rimmed dark aviators, brown leather jackets, skinny off-white trousers. I wanted to run out onto the street after them and get a snap.
From my podcast: Yuval Noah Harari’s three book recommendations:
Lunch: €13.50 plus €1.50 tip. I really should just skip tea.
13:43 Quick shop-up in the nearby Carrefour: cheese, baguette, biscuits, scallions, green olives: €6.06
14:18:58
14:30 Airel: 11km.
14:59:32 
15:09:26
15:55 Wandered west for 1.2km by taking a wrong turn at a crossroads. On track again.
16:12 Back on track.
17:13 Airel.
18:01 Knocked at a farmhouse door to ask for permission to camp - two short-haired women. The one who didn’t answer the door refused me. The other one looked like she was prepared to humour me. I didn’t have the linguistic tools to sweet-talk them!
18:09 A second refusal: a handsome, smiling man in a tractor in his farmyard who dismounted to chat to me. He asked me questions which I couldn’t answer and then said something which I infer is “my fields aren’t near here”.
18:10 Another refusal: a tiny little old lady in a dark, ramshackle house.
A few minutes later, I walk into a yard with Irish-registered cars. At the door, I give my spiel in French to a slim elderly lady, who answers me in English with an English accent and welcomes me inside. She introduces herself as Lesley and I’m introduced to her husband Mike, whose knees are giving him trouble and who’s going a bit deaf. Moments after arriving Lesley hands me a proper cup of tea and I’m made to feel right at home. Even Barney the dog reckons I’m his new best pal.
Around seven, I mention that as the light is fading I ought to go out and set up the basha: Lesley says “The field is far too wet, I’ll arrange the spare bedroom for you.” I don’t need much convincing to stay!
As soon as I mentioned that I work with computers, Lesley had a whole list of problems for me to sort out with her tablet and e-reader. I got to work fixing their Wi-Fi range extender, applying overdue updates and recovering lost passwords.
20:24 Dinner of delicious fish and chips and beans with Lesley and Mike. They’re amazingly easy company: open, relaxed and curious, but not inquisition curious. Mike’s a retired motor mechanic (who did very nicely for himself judging by the collection of vehicles he shows me the next day) and Lesley is a Jehovah’s witness. I reckon having done her share of being refused on people’s doorsteps, she was happy to extend a bit of Christian charity to the stray who showed up on hers.
The IGN maps I’m using characterise roads from rutted tracks to 100km/h white-stripe-down-the-middle no-hard-shoulder deathtraps the same way.↩
