Aubeterre

Oh this was a tricky one. I welcome any suggestions on how to take photos with these extremes of light. It was however the blip that I set out to get today and even put a panier on my bike so that I could take the 'big' camera. I had thought that approaching these trees would look great from the other direction but it just didn't have an interesting quality. So I took it from the this side once we had cycled through and I thought at first I would wait till there were no cars but it gives you an impression of the size of them. So these plane trees line the approach to Aubeterre a very old village that I mentioned the other day.. it is a village with a church cut out of the rock .. It's a good morning ride for us. Today we did about 45km .. left early as it was forecast to be very hot and the forecast was right 32 degrees at the moment. I led again (not sure what Mr A's strategy is here but nevertheless). Trouble is I pushed it a bit too hard and we were both knackered when we got back .. straight into the pool. I could probably do with one of those ice cold baths that Eddie Izzard put himself through when he was doing all those marathons. I didn't think we were pushing the pace but boy did I feel it on the way back up all those hills. It's probably going to be another early night tonight.. I like to keep a steady pace and when I was feeling it I remembered Stephen Redgrave's commentary observing TeamGB in some of the rowing events "Their legs must be hurting now" and mine (and I suspect Mr A's too) were!! The sad thing about many of the plane trees in France (and there are many approach roads lined with them like this) is that many are now diseased and the ones lining the Canal du Midi for example have all got to be cut down. It is tragic and will change the rural face of France dramatically... Back to work now .. writing time...