Ride along the Charente River

On Sunday August 9th twenty-two regular bikers gathered in Cozes for a ride to Cognac, Gensac la Palus , St Simeux, Trois Palis...

The weather was dreadful, but everything had been booked in advance so we couldn't postpone the rally. When we left home there wasn't much rain . We all met in front of Phil's shop, just opposite the old Halles. Some bikers were already soaking wet. We left Cozes at 9.30am later than scheduled because of bad weather and headed for Pons. Some wise bikers decided to wear their rain suit , I wanted to wear mine but felt so uncomfortable that I decided to take it off. What a bad idea!! Then a few kilometres away it rained so heavily that we had to stop in front of a supermarket to protect ourselves from the rain. We were all soaking wet! And we all had to wear our rain suit. Then we headed for Cognac riding on the main roads as the weather was still dreadful . We stopped at Gensac La Palus and visited the motorbike museum . The owner is a former bike racing champion and he has collected more than 200 motorcycles. He explained with details the history of some famous motorbikes. He's a passionate man. Then now wet and cold, we headed for

St Simeux, crossed the bridge over the river Charente, the scenery was breathtaking but it was still raining . We came to " Le chai" restaurant in Mosnac la voute where we were expected for lunch.

Ali and Stuart , the owners welcomed us very warmly and lent a pair of shoes to Phil who was really wet! We had a lovely dinner for a very reasonable price. The chef is English but the cuisine is French. We really had a good time relaxing and drying ourselves in the restaurant. After lunch the weather was getting better . Daniel who has got a trike and a trailer played some music on the car park. Then we left the restaurant and headed for Trois Palis in order to visit the Chocolate factory. Our guide expected us a little earlier and thought that we were coming on our bicycles. When she saw the helmets she was a bit surprised! The visit was entertaining, we tasted some home-made chocolate and had fun teasing our guide. We left Trois Palis in the late afternoon and rode back to Cozes. Some local people watched the long parade of motorbikes waving goodbye. On our way back we stopped at the Leclerc supermarket car park in Pons to kiss goodbye and everyone rode back to their house.

All in all we had a nice day out but we do hope sunny weather for the next motorbike ride.