Good morning everyone from a warm if cloudy Niort.

This is quite a busy place, compared to others that we have stayed in the past week or so, but has its charm. Apparently, it’s quite a financial centre, which would explained all the Mercs and big Peugeots!

Niort has some really charming areas and interesting buildings.

The Keep, or Don Jon.

Market hall.

Off to the Vendée now, it’s pretty flat but very historic. It was the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who you will remember from history lessons was mother of Richard the Lionheart. The people there have a reputation for making their own mind up on political matters. They told Napoléon to get stuffed amongst other things! Even Karl Marx mentioned the Vendée in his writing regarding revolutionary struggles in various countries, he uses the term “a Vendée” as meaning “a focus of persistent counter-revolutionary activities! So now you know!

Pour la Vendée!

Dookes