Acid rain

Peering out the ferry portholes, it was hard to tell if it was raining or just cloudy. We decided to disembark and see, before getting all excitable about raingear. It was drizzling. We pulled over and extracted our waterproofs from under the various bungees. In a hurry, in the dismal driech morning, we hurried putting them on. This turned out to be important, because we then pretty much waterski'd blindfold from st. Mali to Rennes to Nantes. Seriously, it was chucking it down stingingly, burningly hard so our glasses and visors fogged up about 3 seconds flat, and the roads were so waterlogged even without more rain we'd have been aqua-planing. The spray from the artics just ensured nowhere was safe from splashes. And the hurried donning of raingear meant I hadn't done the Velcro properly so I leaked. Thus obviating the point. Oh, well - at least it was warmer than the road to mont blanc last year. After Nantes, the rain eased and we got pretty much blow-dried to Bordeaux. The French put up notices saying 'vents violents. Soyez prudents'. Well, yeah - after yet another involuntarylane change caused by a gust toying with over a quarter ton of fully loaded hog + rider. Spain is cracking down on people changing without indicating. If this wind doesn't drop, I'm in muchas trouble. But we made it to Bordeaux, mainly by deciding stuff it & taking the peage. (surprisingly cheap for the distance we did. And maybe it's my saffa side, but I don't mind tolls so much when I can see where the money went). We took a scenic (ie satnav) route to the hotel, which was prebooked and actually in begles, not Bordeaux. But only (when I got into the room and its wifi) 500m from the dealership. Hey! None of that! I did history last time, this time it's dealerships. Nice ones, too. The Bordeaux one featured a rocker c like lynn's but with a vastly nicer pillion seat, which promptly inspired a number of cracks (as I'm the only person who goes pillion on hers - when mine's misbehaving/at the mechanic). A couple of glasses of very nice Bordeaux red (and yes, debating the comparative merits of wines when I don't speak much French and the waitress doesn't do much English ranks as high comedy anywhere), I amnow ready for a good nights sleep before tackling tomorrow's big challenge. (the Pyrenees? Basque country? Navigating in a foreign language? Actually, it's probably going to be loading the damn bikes in the first place).