we managed to get a bit further than Intermarche and pressed on to Bressuire. We had a positive reply from a workaway host so on our way to St Maixent L'Ecole. The campsite in Bressuire was lovely and we were welcomed by a British couple with a cup of tea! After a good nights sleep we started on road to St Maixent, not long into the journey we stopped for a snack and noticed one of the spokes on the rear tyre had broken. Therefore, a crash course in wheel truing on a picnic bench ensued. We had no way of removing the spoke so taped it up to it's neighbour and carried on in the hope we would find a bike shop en route.
No such luck in finding a bike shop! Two more broken spokes later and we found ourselves on the side of the road attempting some sort of repair. It turns out if you break down with a bicycle in the middle of France you get quite a lot of attention. We had plenty of people stop to make sure we were ok, and our knight in shining armour, Benoit, was kind enought to spend several hours helping us out. Ben and Rob popped to local bike shop to get some spokes, a local farm to get some tools and I sat with the bike on the roadside. Whilst waiting for them to come back at least four people stopped offering assistance or a place to stay or some bicycle related advice. The wheel was in need of serious attention and it was late in the day, so Ben contacted his friends Jerome and Fabiola who lived down the road and offered us a place to stay. Unloaded, we followed Ben and Jerome in the car and got up some serious speed. We had a lovely evening with our rescue team and enjoyed a sleep in a real bed for the first time in 6 weeks. A great big thank you to Ben, Jerome and Fabiola!!!
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