Another sub zero night and when we poke our noses over the covers it's only 7C inside! On with the heating. Jack Frost has been all over the windows making a mess like a Banksy at Iceland.
By the time we're up, warm, fed, looked through yesterday's photos, planned a route for today and have used the service point it is approaching midday.
The weather is forecast to be sunny so we plan to make use of the good light and zigzag around the lakes of the Brenne National Park.
From Benevant we follow a single track road across open grassland to Poulingy St Pierre then onto a lovely main road to Luriel before turning off to Linge, where the lakes start in earnest.
The first few are small or distant, some just managed fishing pools but then there are larger ones shimmering blue in the sunshine and surrounded by golden reed beds.
We park in St Michel on Brenne next to a grand house with moat, before turning south towards Gabriere.
Now there is water to be seen everywhere, more blue fringed with gold and surrounded by lush pasture which is grazed variously by white cattle, goats and heavy horses. There are quite a few places selling cheese, mostly sheep or goat. The narrow roads are edged with deep drainage ditches but there is hardly any traffic to be concerned with.
We pull into the car park of a random 'etang'. A man gets out of his car with a bazooka sized lens on his camera, suggesting some serious twitching is nigh, and sure enough just down the path is a timber hide complete with a low viewing hatch reserved for wheelchairs. There are a few egrets and herons but it's too early for the full on bird reserve.
A few miles on we reach le Bouchet, a sturdy little time-warp of a farming village. We stop for lunch looking over a typical sunken sheep fold scooped out among a few trees. Nearby there are more heavy horses and birds include green woodpeckers, heron and a couple of eagles.
Around the corner is a chateau, not open to visitors until March.
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Just outside le Bouchet is etang de la mer rouge but it isn't a red sea today. Never mind, today is all about recce-ing the area and mer rouge has walkways and observation posts designed for wheelchairs.
We leave the single track roads at Ronsay and head for Migne. Along the way is a ring of massive radio masts ahead and as we get closer there are no stopping and no photography signs. The Marines communications base is visible from the road, but the double perimeter fence with wide no-man's-land runways indicate that security is taken very seriously.
At Migne we stop near the sandstone, Romanesque church to find our nightstop. There are three possibles: La Peroiulle, Luant or Neuillay-les-Bois. The last is noted as closed until March so we choose La Perouille which is near a lake. We wind through the village and alon a single track road to find the entrance sealed with barrier tape. Luant then, a pleasant drive through pretty lakeland in lowering sun, but it too is chained off. We could stay in the park car park but it's shaded by trees and close to the road. Looking in the books the irony is that Thenay - considered yesterday - is only 11 miles away so we head there. Out on the main road we see three or four aire signs for the two closed ones, which begs the question, if they can rig tape and anchor chain to block them off, couldn't they pop out and put bags over the signs?
In St Gualtier we cross the river which is turning mauve in the setting sun and are shortly afterwards parking at the dead end of a road - literally. At least there shouldn't be any noise from the adjacent grave yard….
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