Another cycle-road photo blog. The Sazeray ring, around 20 kms or so, is one of our favourites at the moment. Chris and I nip off to do it after delivering Ruadhri to the school bus at Nouzerines in the morning. But on Wednesday, since there no’s school for Rors that day, we all went together. We’d hoped to buy him an ice-cream along the way, but the one shop on the route – the Multi-Services at Sazeray – was firmly shut for whatever reason. Luckily I came prepared with choccie bars so we had those instead.

There’s some nice off-road cycling on this route. We go along the ‘Boulevard des Pommiers’ (Apple Tree Avenue). Isn’t it a great sign! It’s nailed to a tree in a lovely little orchard which produces the most amazing apples.

We’ve never seen anyone either inside or outside this caravan, and we’ve passed it hundreds of times. The slogan reads: La petite maison dans les pommes, le coin des gens heureux’ – the little house amongst the apple trees, the place of happy people.

More cycling along tracks and then we get back to tarmac at the Croix Verte – green cross. It actually is although it looks rather dark in this photo. It’s a simple but beautiful iron cross, painted a nice bright green.

By now we’re in Indre, the département to the north of our Creuse. In these foreign parts they have snazzy signs to mark the points where the school buses stop to pick up their young passengers! This one doubles as a cow herding aid – see the blue string?

Just before we arrive at Sazeray, we go through L’Oiseau – The Bird. There seems to be just the one house there.

The landscape around here is dotted with water towers. This is the ivy-covered one of Sazeray.

Another cross along the way – La Croix de St Jean. The inscription on it says 31 May 1943. I shall have to do some research to find out what that’s about.

We had our usual stop at St Paul’s. We love this old abandoned farmstead. When I’ve made a fortune from self-publishing my books on Kindle, we’ll buy it!

And back home for elevenses. Ruadhri was great all the way round, with just one grumble up the last hill home. The territory around is rolling so there are some fairly stiff climbs – and some great descents! The problem is that the local communes have been gritting the roads in honour of the forthcoming passage of the Tour de France through the area, so there’s a lot of loose gravel lying around at the moment. That’s lethal for cyclists. I hope it’s all swept up before the 9th of July …