A walk around the lake at Bellebouche - and two sides to the story.

Yesterday we headed over to La Brenne to take the walk around the lake at Bellebouche. We have visited the lake a few times before but never completed the 7km+ walk around it.

The first part of the walk down the east side of the lake was lovely with a walk along a path through the woods with occational views onto the lake itself.

The return, back along the west side was not so interesting with little or any views of the lake. It was however made more interesting when we arrived at this point below. 

We had to give way to a French family coming out this little lane from one of the 'hides' who then proceeded to walk past the blue cross. We explained to them that  the cross meant that this was not the way to go. Now, the alternative route,at 90 degrees to it, did seem wrong in that it was heading away from the lake but we tried to assure them that we were familiar with route markings and this was not the way to go.

The son of the family was not having it and produced a map on his 'smart' phone that implied it was in fact the correct route and they walked off by the blue cross. After visiting the hide  I looked at the alternative that was a long straight road in what seemed like the wrong direction and made the decision to follow them, what was the worst that could happen? (Haven't a great track record here)

We met and passed the family who had stopped to take photographs and as we looked back we noticed they seemed hesitant to continue along the path - they perhaps had Googled 'comprendre le balisage des sentiers'. Anyway I decided as there seemed to be a path and it was,in my opinion, in the right direction we should continue. Pauline on the other hand was not convinced. Had I ever let her down before? (well that's another few stories).

My decision and sense of direction proved correct and we eventually picked up the track that took us back to our starting point - not sure how long our French family would take to catch up but we decided that after taking a refreshment at the lakeside cafe that we wouldn't wait to find out!