ELEPHANTS, BOOKS, MACAROONS AND CASTLES
Is the Vienne department (in the Poitou-Charente, west of France) an attractive one? It’s certainly very flat but entering a small town or Bourg on the top of a very sharp hill there is a Castle in ruins, a dungeon, gates which protected the towns during many medieval wars and even later. Looking down at Chauvigny There is a reward in climbing up these very steep slopes usually with steps and more steps to get to the top, the views. Rivers, La Vienne, La Gartempe, La Creuse...and smaller streams. At the beginning but the tiny tack is much further on.... I have covered over 200 or more kilometres in the south of the department. Today is a rest day as there is a 5 kilometer trek this afternoon. Since I have been in this part of the world I have started out on many of the tracks but not being able to read the signs, have usually retraced my steps after two hours in one direction...now armed with a trekking map, I can see that it was just as well. Most that I started out on,