Summer has arrived. Suddenly and without warning. Went out in a as very cloudy and forecast said that was what we were getting. Came back at the endof the day with a very positive tan having spent the best part of the day in full sunshine under a glorious blue sky. After the last month in England feeling positively chilly this warmth is absolutely wonderful.
The day was pretty wonderful too. We had decided to visit Saumur, somewhere we have been a couple of times before, including stopping on the campsite on the island in the middle of the Loire. Bob chose a very scenic route so that we could just wander along and explore as not been this end of the Loire itself before. Super idea. Our campsite is a couple of miles North of the Loire so we first of all found the river then drove East along it, on the North bank. Stopped first at where there are some rather fine photographs of the Tour de France on display and from there crossed to the south side of the river. This is the very scenic quieter road to Saumur and goes through some exquisitely pretty
villages bordering the river. Flowers absolutely everywhere and my camera got hotter and hotter under the collar trying to capture the pretty scenes. The river, the flowers and of course the gorgeous light coloured Loire Valley buildings.
First stop Le Prieure de St Remy de Varenne. Came across it, stopped and explored the very pretty grounds. Then LAbbeye de Glanfeuil. a massive chateau dominating the river bank. We stopped at Le Thoureil for lunch. Rude not to really as there was a nice looking restaurant, Au Coin du Fleuve, overlooking the water and the village was so pretty. A delightful drive and we were reminded as we got nearer to Saumur that they grow mushrooms in the caves into the rocks on the south side of the river and most of the houses seem to have buildings which are built right into the cliff.
And then to Saumur. A lovely town, bustling, nice shops, restaurants and gorgeous buildings. We found a car park in Place de St Nicolas and discovered to our delight that parking was free on Friday afternoon. This was after I had watched an elderly (at least 2 years older than me !) French
gentlenman struggle to pay to park and his ticket which he showed me had the astonishing rate of €18 or €34 printed. Payment was fine for first 2 hours, when not free but extortionate after that. Dont know how long he paid for but I felt a bit bad as I told him that it was free as it was Friday.
Had a lovely wander round the town. Weve been before when there was a fantastic market taking place and weve also visited the chateau but today was just a meandering sort of day. Stopped for icecream, photographs (of course) and at the patisserie. A day out in France is without a yummy French cake or tart for desert. I promise you that the two I bought, which we shared later, were as delicious as they looked.
Back to the car and we took a more direct route back to and our campsite, along the north side of the Loire this time. Direct apart from the detour when Bob missed the turn away from the river so we took a scenic route through a village or two ! The roads we drove today were mostly
marked as 3.5ton limit so quite narrow really and plenty of cylists on the road. This is a very cycle friendly area.
Back at the campsite quickest way to cool down was a dip in the pool and a drink at the campsite bar. Then we used our new electric griddle to cook the sausages outside and declared ourselves well pleased with our new toy.
