Turquant

Last night's aire turned out to be very popular, with fifteen of the eighteen spaces taken, we were the only English people. Today’s aire looks like being popular as well, there is another English van here. We both commented, that it has been some days since we bumped into any English people, but most of the campsites in France will be closed now, so as we approach the northern coast and the ports we expect to see more, hopefully this man is a one off!

For the last few days of our holiday we have decided to slow things down and travel only a couple of hours a day. This gives us time to stop and take in some sights we might otherwise have passed by, like La Pointe, a small village alongside the Loire.

It has been declared a world heritage sight by UNESCO. Years ago when the river Loire was alive with barges and flat bottomed boats used for transporting all kinds of goods, it was a popular stopping port. Today it appeared to be a popular stopping place for sparrows, a large tree near our van was full of them, chattering merrily.

And, just off the river bank we spotted the rare pink flamingo, last time we sighted one it was in Spain.

Driving along the side of the Loire, the clouds overhead, darkened the water of the Loire, and the late summer sun, low in the sky, cast long shadows across the road.

Mid afternoon, we arrived in Turquant. It is a pretty troglodyte village in a wine producing region of the Loire.

During the renaissance, sailors, farmers and other trades people lived and hid in the caves cut into the tufa rock. The rock is soft, and weathers badly, some of the properties in the village seemed in quite a bad state of repair. At one property, a man was sawing through a block of tufa rock with just a hand saw, it sliced through it like a knife through butter. The village is home to many wine houses, and as we walked around the village, tractors passed us by, with trailers piled high with grapes, on their way to the stainless steel hoppers awaiting them.

Outside most of the properties, there were grapevines, John took it upon himself to taste his way around the village, frustrated that he couldn’t also access the eating apples and walnuts that lay on the ground in the surrounding gardens.

Tonight is pizza night in the van, we have sourced some small size pizzas in a supermarket that will fit onto our tiny grill.

My brother in law Peter likes to set me chilli challenges, so this is to show I am in training for whatever he throws at me!

And lasty something we saw

growing in a garden as we walked past dedicate to Margery herself.