Saturday 25th July 2026

It was hotter than hell last night, but by Morning it was fresh and cool.

And as we slept poorly in the wee small hours, we laid abed until half seven, which gave us half an hour to get up and be ready for breakfast at eight.

We made it at ten past, and dined well on fresh bread, salted fresh butter and local preserves. And fruit. And yogurt. And fresh coffee.

So, what to do with the day?

We had visited Essoyes the day before, which is what caught my eye when looking for a place to stay.

We had noticed a sign pointing to Parc naturel régional de la Forêt d’Orient, so we went there.

An easy half hour drive though sleepy villages, then into rolling farmland with acres of sunflowers going to seed, and patches of woodland, that soon merged into the national park

We found the "house of the park", and found a woodland walk which wound its way through beech woodland for about a kilometre. Not much saw, but we saw and heard Middle Spotted woodpeckers, Nuthatches and Marsh tits, and hear many more species beside.

At a woodland pool, a sign advised us to point our cameras towards the water.

I obeyed, and was rewarded in seeing dozens of frogs and toads, all covered in duckweed. We stayed for twenty minutes trying to spot them.

We drove on to a second woodland walk, but falled trees made it tricky to follow, and i gave up after a while, and instead chased damselflies, snapping on old female.

A short drive further on was a lake, where a beach had been created, so we bought and ate ice creams while we watched folks frolic in the water, though a Hummingbird hawk moth stole our attention.

We drove slowly back to the hotel through more sleepy villages and farms, past reservoirs held back by levees, then down into Bar.

We went to the supermarket over the road for supplies to see us through the day, then back to the room for the final race stage of Le Tour.

Two and a half hours passed as the riders climbed mountain after mountain, and I struggled to stay awake as I watched.

To escape the heat and humidity of the room, we went to the bar below to drink ice cold beers and watch the world go by, and say bonsoir to all who came to drink too.