Angoulême, briefly

After a journey of discovery on the internets, we found that the best place to look up Eurotrain information is a German site. Silly us, we should have thought of that. It turns out that this particular TGV to Lille does stop at Angoulême, so the plan to attempt the roadworks in Bordeaux was happily ditched in favour of a drive via Cognac to Angoulême, where there is easy weekend parking at the station. Well, usually there is. This weekend was the International Comic Strip Festival and the city was crowded, but with a little queueing we found a disabled space. Even though other drivers were having to leave their cars in the roadways while their passengers dragged cases out, nobody uses the disabled spaces illegally: so different from south-east England.

I waved goodbye as the TGV left, and went back out into the warm sunshine. The brightly-painted shuttle bus decorated with comic strip characters was tempting - free rides! - but I decided to drive round the city instead, just in case of getting stuck somewhere. There were people all over the streets, talking, sitting at cafe tables with laptops. Sitting in traffic jams in the narrow pieces of road was left for motor vehicles was an unusually pleasant experience because I could look at all the placards and the giant strips lining the pavements, though the stops weren't long enough to read the stories.

Angoulême stands on hills high above the plain, and one side has amazing views from a steep road with mountain-style bends. Much of it might not be possible and certainly wouldn't be easy by wheelchair, but the central space around the cathedral is level, and one day I must go and look at it properly.

Preferably not on a Wednesday, when they have Chocolate days. I don't think that would be a good idea.