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France


Bayonne. Looking into one end of 14th of April 1814 Avenue. I was expecting there to be a sign near the traff... 14th of April 1814 Avenue. Looking out of the Avenue. A house called Ceres. Bayonne. It appears that somebody has driven into the sign telling them to drive cautiously. 14th April... An electric bendy bus and some flats. 22nd August... 22nd of August 1944 Road is a handy place to stock up on supplies. The 19th of March is a very common date in France. There are about 2300 of them. It's the date of th... 19th of March 1962 Avenue. That was bad timing. I'll try again. 19th March... As if to prove that it's a common date, this park in Mont-de-Marsan is called 19th of March 1962 Squ... 21st of August Avenue. 21st August... Another view of the park. A village where I have stopped for a rest and to eat my Aldi strawberries. In this heat they start t... 1st of August Square in a small place called Préchac. 1st of August Square. 1st of August Square. 1st August... I've arrived at the end of the road which leads to my hotel but I'm confused. It's a dead-end but th... After having a walk around, I've found that the road isn't a dead end at all. The entrance is at thi... My hotel. It's a mini-apartment. Getting to it was complicated though. Somebody who seemed like the owner led ... There is a good set of kitchen utensils. This is also the first room in over a month which has had a... This is the view from my window, in a town called Saint-Macaire, just outside Langon. One of the roa... The downstairs courtyard. A house. Like in ... A street in Saint-Macaire. A road leading out of the town. 30th July... 30th of July Way. In case you didn't notice what was unusual about the sign, apart from it being tra... The tops of the bollards are very shiny. They look new. Saint-Macaire. Remains of an old archway. A pilot vehicle was driving ahead of this large load to warn us to pull off the road. Bordeaux vineyards. More of the morning's scenery. When the empty trucks go back the other way, they can carry their pilot vehicles. I followed this on... My next road: 11th of June 1944 Road. It goes past a supermarket. Like yesterday that gave me somewhere to park although this time I didn'... 11th June... Hilly scenery. There's no real reason for this picture. I just took it when I pulled over to let another car overta... The town hall in my next destination town, Vergt. Vergt. They seem to be getting ready for some kind of strawberry festival. 22nd June... Looking along 22nd of June 1944 Road, which is unusual for being the only one of my roads whose sign... Vergt. Looking the other way along 22nd of June 1944 Road, we see the Black Sheep Restaurant... ... and looking down a side alley we see a cat sleeping in the shade. The main square in Vergt, with more strawberry decorations. On the way out of the town I did pass a ... Blending in. The shop on the corner is called The Improbably Grocer's. Mind you, the town does have a rather impr... Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac. 31st of March Square which, according to a plaque, is named after the day when all the men of the to... 31st March... The square does include this old weighing scale. Like all of the towns and villages which I have driven through this morning, it's incredibly neat an... Rouffignac. The wooden building on the right is a public toilet, which was useful. Another road in Rouffignac. Scenery. Bales of hay. I learned today that there are some Americans following these pictures so this one's for them: 4th o... 4th July... This corner is getting more attention than I expected. The sign is on the left of this picture and I... My next town: Ussel. Ussel. 4th of September Road. 4th September... Ussel. Ussel. Ussel. What a lovely town. Ussel. A dragon outside an art gallery. There are three undertakers standing in the dark porch of the church but currently no other signs of... Ussel is a town of intriguing alleyways... ... and doorways. The back of a museum. On the left is today's last road: 21st of June 1944 Road. I thought I would get a better picture of ... The sign on the beige house says Gerzat, which is a suburb of Clermont-Ferrand and the name of this ... 21st of June 1944 Avenue. 21st June... Gerzat station. If I had to describe this room in a word, it would be "pink". The view from my window. In the foreground is an advertisement for the restaurant which I hope to tr... I do have this though. It's a picture of one of the volcanoes: the Puy de Dôme. I can confirm ... This is disappointing. There was a flyer for the restaurant in my room which not only offered 10% of... The town of Thiers. I've found a reference to a town not far from where I live. Thiers and the Durolle. Thiers. The steps to number 13, apparently. The way to the town centre, where I need to go. A view from the steps. Thiers. Thiers. Okay. Thiers. Thiers. Another spiral staircase. I think the tall building on the right is the back of the Town Hall. Here we are: 29th of July Close. 29th July... I think this is a public car park, although it seems to be mainly used by the residents of the surro... 27th July... The sign is on the corner of the main road. Incidentally, the River Rhône is just beyond the t... 27th of July 1944 Road. I think we might be seeing a lot of 1944 in the remaining week or so of this... The bridge across the railway has been closed off by this block... ... which has the look-and-say sequence on it. This motorway service station has a tennis court. The same service station. The motorway crossed the Rhône three times and ran alongside it for ... Most French motorways are operated by private companies. This map shows the motorways which this par... Here are the Alps again, this time seen from the French Side. It's quite funny to see Milan and Turi... Two alleyways in Romans-sur-Isère. The River Isère, flowing fast. Here, a tramp came and asked me for some money. He started in English, then drifted back into French... Romans-sur-Isère. This is the road which I came to see. 27th August... A less pretty part of Romans-sur-Isère. Romans-sur-Isère. It's art. The top of the same street. The Alps in the region of Grenoble. Another view. A view of the Grenoble area from a car park near to my next road. Scenery. Scenery. I think I can see a ski lift. I thought I would get a view of the centre of Grenoble from this park but there are too many trees i... I have changed my mind several times about where to park for 4th of January 1944 Road. First I thoug... These have been running across paths and roads in front of me every few days for weeks now but this ... A tourist sign pointed the way from the car park to the Fort du Mûrier so I've come to have a ... 4th of January 1944 Road. The notice board for opinions and expressions is quite empty. Also, you can't tell from this picture... ... there's a branch blocking the view of the sign. When I first saw it I thought that I might be ab... 4th of January 1944 Road. 4th January... That worked. My room. It's only 110 metres from where I left the motorway but it's taken me 33 minutes to get fro... Another issue with this hotel is that these are the stairs from the car park to reception. I haven't... The hotel might actually be easier to find by bike than by car. This is long-distance bike route run... A pile of firewood in a garden. A castle on a distant mountainside. The turning on the left is my 319th road... 22nd of April 1860 Road. It's the date of the somewhat dubious referendum which approved this area b... 22nd April... I've just spotted this cross, on a mountain called the Nivolet. The outdoor part of the dining room includes a pétanque shed. I am surprised this hotel ever passed inspection. Apart from the issue of the steps to reception, th... Part of the hotel car park has now been reserved for whatever this is. Lake Bourget. Lake Bourget. The road along the lake is popular with cyclists. There is a cycle lane each way on the road plus th... Lake Bourget. A loaded touring cyclist pedalling hard. A town called Albens. What's left of 17th of October Road. 17th October... The workmen have cone off to the café, leaving a dangling fire hydrant. A high-speed train passing through. I read somewhere that in Switzerland you have to have the warning triangles in the cabin of the car,... Scenery from my long drive through the Jura Mountains. The same place. Who are you calling bossy? This is what the view looks like when I'm passing through woods... ... and this is what it looks like when I'm in the open. Scenery. A memorial in Mijoux. The bottom of a chairlift. Mijoux. I can hear cowbells. The Arbez, the hotel which is famous for being partly in France and partly in Switzerland. A couple ... A Swiss train. The cars on the left are coming across the border from Switzerland to France. My road, on the right,...