Rain Rain Rain

We are currently staying in a little village on the south coast of France, 28 kms north of La Rochelle. We managed to get our tents up before the rain started, but it is raining constantly now. The campground owner is very obliging & between my limited French & her limited English we have managed OK.
It has been over 50 years since I took French at college & believe it or not it is pretty rusty. Of course our NZ accent makes it difficult for the French to understand our English, let alone my poor French. The young French are OK because English is a compulsory language at school. Kids if you have the opportunity to learn French or Spanish & you travel later in life, you will appreciate the effort.
Hi to the pupils at Kirwee school I know some of you are following this blog & our trip. As you may know in Europe you drive on the right hand side of the road & the steering wheel is on the left hand side of the car. The confusing rule is at round abouts you give way to the left, but at uncontrolled intersections without stop or give way signs you give way to the right as we do in NZ.
The rest of our group of seven motorcycles crossed over from Dover to Calais in France today, on the Chunnel. It only takes 30 minutes to cross the English Channel & you are in France. We rode our bikes on to the train & sat beside them. There is no sense of speed, inside the carriage. Most of the country we have ridden through is gently undulating, with the predominant crops being, barley & canola. There have been virtually no fences or cattle, but a lot of piggeries. Easy to pick on a motorbike. Inland, around Paris a number of farmers were irrigating with hard hose guns. I have not seen any centre pivots at all.
Internet is not always available, so posts may be infrequent. When the rest of our group arrives & the rain stops we will ride on down to Spain