Saturday 3rd October 2009.
Madame has had a hard life having lost both her husband and son recently, and has the bank chasing her to sell up, but she looked after us very well, did mountains of washing, and when Alec crept down early to try to catch up with some writing of the diary, he couldn’t get a moment’s peace!
We walked up to the Royal Fortress of Chinon and spent a happy couple of hours exploring it. I wish I had done this area in chronological order as we were now back in the early 1100’s . There is major restoration work being carried out to repair the rooms where Joan of Arc met the Dauphin Philip II of France. Of even more interest to us was the fact that Henry II Plantagenet lived and died here AND kept the treasury of England over here so he could keep tabs on what kind of shape England’s finances were in. I can’t imagine how he knew before the days of computers. I had visions of Gordon sitting in the corner of a turret counting the money in the days of his previous job. Of even greater interest to Vivi was the fact that one whole turret – three floors of it, all with ribbed vaulted ceilings was known as the kennels and was where the king kept his packs of hounds. The three floors were identical except one of them had a bread oven – that was where the huntsman slept!! The old town under the castle is very picturesque too with a thriving Saturday market. We didn’t leave until after 1.30 and biked Westwards to Saumer. We followed the Vienne River most of the way before it joined the Loire, so it was an easy ride. Not the most interesting views as the river was hidden from us by a lot of scrub and poplar trees, but it was very peaceful. Candes St Martin and the Abbey at Montsereau were a good spot for lunch. Alec’s collection of photos of the Stations of the Cross is gathering pace, and is almost catching up with his past obsession with finding golf balls,Willie!
The South bank is made up of cliffs dotted with Troglodyte caves. As a child I remember seeing them and was fascinated by the thought of people living in such dark spooky places. Now they seem rather sophisticated with double glazing, museums, wine cellars, and we are even debating whether to stay in a b and b in one tomorrow night.
Saumer is a beautiful city with a colossal Chateau perched above it so we are looking forward to exploring tomorrow.
The countryside is a different here, they grow asparagus and a lot of maize although I don’t know what for as it isn’t harvested yet (or at least they are only just beginning now) and it has turned completely brown and dry. There aren’t many cattle in evidence either so unless all the cows are indoors I can only assume it goes for bio-fuels.
