The day
dawns fair – again!! With aire mayor nowhere to be found and despite the fact
that we suspect he might be the actual mayor we set off. Our first destination
of the day is Chinon, another medieval town where we intend to breakfast and
sightsee. Note to all campers about trying to park in Chinon…. just don’t!!
It’s wonderful from a distance but seems to be populated by the rude and those
inept at driving. Streets are narrow, no campers shall pass. We slink across
the river, everybody’s tales between their legs and admire from afar. It looks
beautiful from a distance, but perhaps the impassable fortifications should
have given us a clue! The fortress is 400m in length and its surrounding wall
dates from the 10th century. Truly none shall pass! We breakfast on
the (far) bank of the river and consider ourselves defeated and zoom on towards
Loches.
Another
medieval town, Loches is amazing. We had hope to stay here for the night, but
the fair is in town and the aire is situated a little unsafely shall we say. Loches is too good to abandon though, so we
park up and take a look. It’s just beautiful and dripping with history
everywhere. Evidently this is the place
where all the best Kings came on holiday. Apparently all the Kings of France
have used the Chateau as a holiday home; one half dates from the 14th
century and the other half from the 15th Century (why did they need
to expand it?). As the residence of
Charles VII it became known for its decadent feasts held for his mistress (Ah.
All becomes clear).
In the park
there are the remains of a Sequioa tree (spot Jon).
The tree
was struck by lightning but the three forks remaining were preserved…
We return
to Valerie, walking along the river banks. At this point Moo spies his first
ever fish. The water is shallow and clear. Moo is transfixed. And looks very
perplexed. Fight or flight? He decides a dignified retreat is the best bet and
tries to look super casual as he walks away. Around the corner he spies a more
familiar looking piece of water, not transparent, just weedy, reedy, safe… no
fishes here and in he sploshes for a drink. Clearly some fishy beasty is
lurking under the reeds after all; Moo evidently startles it and the dog leaps out of his skin, water up nose,
ears flat, eyes looking every which way - total whack attack. After a moment he realises
that he’s fine actually. Thank you. Then
a dead reed breaks off from the clump and lands across his nose. Moo turns
himself inside out and scarpers for the van. Dignity be damned.
Everyone is
back in the van in one piece and we decide to try our luck at our First French
Passion which looks to be down the road. French Passion is a scheme operated
purely for Camper Vans by French business folks who have the space and the
inclination to allow campervans to stay on their land for a night. It’s free
and you get to know the locals, sample the local produce if you’re lucky and
enjoy a slice of ‘real France’. Staying on a farm, lovely French hosts, lovely
countryside, peace… what could be better? Off we toddle. We drive straight
past. We know it said “farm” in the book, but the animals were closer to our
parking spot than we’d anticipated. Norm would have barked, Moo would have
probably gone to bed with a full belly. Eek.
There’s an
aire not too far and we decide that we’re going there. Even if it’s horrendous,
that’s where we’re staying tonight. Thankfully it turns out to be fab. Sunny,
small secure private park with picnic benches, free hook up, showers (good ones
too) and loos for the princely sum of €1 and a really charming and (guess what)
medieval village just around the corner.
We wander
up to the Chateau. Some of it has been converted into a prehistoric museum and
the remains that are too far gone to restore hang precariously in the sky. Spot
the staircase anyone?
Sadly the
Prehisto bar in town only has two tables outside in the sun, both of which are
occupied by scary French types with an empty espresso cup who clearly won’t be
moved. We retreat to Valerie and showers and air(e) drying in the sunshine J
P.S. Just
realised that Easter is this weekend and not last weekend as previously
supposed. This major error makes even Moo look good today. Woops.
No comments:
Post a Comment