Beaugency

Last night, we took a short walk along the main street of the village,

the night sky was clear, and we took the opportunity to take some late evening photographs.

This morning we were glad to see the other English van leaving, the man from it, came over to us late yesterday afternoon, and was pontificating how wonderful his really long unit was (van, plus trailer for his scooter). He was derogatory about our blog, which I was trying to write while he talk incessantly. I know Margery herself would have said something to him, and the less tolerant one of us, was about to question does size matter? Moving on, all owners of small VW campers, know, that we can stop easily wherever and whenever, we want to.

Before we left the aire, we walked across tomorrow the trees opposite, where sixty three pictures, done in mosaic, culminating in the shape of a bunch of grapes, had been produced by the local children, their names appearing around the edge of it.

After leaving Turquant, we passed by the caves that have been used for many years to grow mushrooms. Above the caves was a large mushroom made from the tufa rock.

Further along the road, at one of the riverside ports, we stopped to photograph the traditional flat bottomed river boats.

Today, much of our journey has been alongside the river Loire, the meandering roads hugging the river banks. We have seen many black cormorants grouped together on the sandbanks, one broke away from the flock and raced alongside us.

After dismissing the aire we stopped at for lunch, we moved to another right on the river bank. We felt this one was too isolated, so decided to move on, but before doing so, John spotted the walnut trees, and he managed to obtain a few fresh walnuts off a nearby tree. There were two women there, determined to have all the nuts, armed with a clothes line prop, they beat the branches, harvesting on an industrial scale. John, note for trip to France in the autumn, don’t forget clothes line prop!

After passing by many chateau, we eventually found an aire, which was both suitable and had room. Tonight we are staying at Beaugency.

We are parked right beside the river Loire, with the Euro Velo 6 cycle path running along beside us, taking us back to another time when we passed this way.

Late afternoon, we took a walk into the town, part of which is medieval. We took a look inside the Abbaye Notre Dame, and the ruins of the chateau. The flowers all around the town were beautiful.

The temperature has been much cooler today, only 18c, so we had to wear our outdoor jackets for the first time this holiday. But this evening, it is still warm enough for us to be sat with our side door open, with some quiet instrumental background music playing, whilst looking across the river at the soft orange glow of the street lights and listening to the water of the river, washing over the rocks as it passes under the Bridge.

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.

Monbert (the return to)

Last night the realisation of just how relaxing it is, as the light begins to fade, and darkness sets in, sitting and reading is. As we’ve mentioned previously, the French are very keen on television, but we haven’t missed it at all. We are both thinking how wonderful it would be to go off in Marge for the whole summer, but we have responsibilities at home, so that trip will have to wait.

This morning, the  yellow and red of the early morning sun, coloured the sky, like the heart of a peach. After breakfast, we walked along the promenade to take one last look at the sea, before we set off. The usual Saturday morning activities of jogging, walking and cycling were happening all around us.

Before, we went for our walk, we noticed that in the school playground being us, tables and trestles were being set up in the playground. On the way back, we stopped at the entrance to the school to see what was going on. A team of men and women were opening oyster shells with ease and at great speed. They had already plated up half a dozen oysters along with a wedge of lemon on many plates. As we mentioned the town is famous for it’s oysters, we wondered if this was some kind of homage to the oyster, held at the end of every summer.

Today, it was sad for us to realise. that this will be our very last weekend in France this year. As we travel further north, despite the days being very warm, (this afternoon 28c), the nights and mornings are much fresher. Autumn is well on its way here, just as it will be back home.

Setting off along the coast, retracing our steps from when we arrived earlier in the month, we travelled through the marshland and nature reserve around La Rochelle, where a stork flew overhead, and then along the quiet country roads towards our lunch stop of  Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, where along the way we saw a large number of free range geese, and couldn’t help wondering what their fate night be.

At Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie we put some figs we’d picked from a tree next to us at last nights stop, onto the dashboard to ripen in the sun, this place is normally reserved for the drying of John’s socks!

 Then we walked down to the large expanse of beach, found a nice spot, and sat and read our books, and one of us paddled in the calm waters of the Atlantic.

Tonight, we are back at Monbert. Philippe is away, but Odile was here to greet us. In French and English we discussed our travels.

Before going to our pitch, Odile gave us a punnet of miniature plum tomatoes from Philippe’s vegetable garden. Once before, Philippe gave us some cherry tomatoes, and these were just as sweet as the ones we received today. Odile has told us tonight and tomorrow morning will be cold, suddenly we yearn for the warmer climate of Spain.

Boucholeurs

This morning, a slight sea mist hung in the air.

As we ate our breakfast, a group of French school children rode by, there colourful cycling helmets bobbling up and down.

Despite there being space on the small aire last night, three vans decided to park in the approach road under the trees. This morning, just after nine, the police were there moving them on. We have often seen the police drive round and check the aires, particularly when we were in Spain. One of the couples who had been told to move, parked opposite us. The wife was dispatched to refill their water container from the tap near the beach, when she returned she was half carrying and half dragging a large rusty anchor she’d found, as you do! The husband didn’t seem to be too pleased. Whether she ever replenished the water container we don’t know.

Before we left, we took a walk down to the beach, to fill our water bottle, and deposit a book into the small library cupboard. The boats in the harbour looked like ghost ships in the mist.

As we headed off, we noticed acres and acres of grapevines as we approached Bordeaux. Skirting around the city we notice some shanty towns, set up by people who looked liked they were probably immigrants.

We stopped at lunchtime to shop for wine and coffee (not wanting to run out of the essentials). We also bought a camembert, our first one of the trip.

Whilst we ate our lunch an old lady with a young man, who we presumed was her grandson came in driving a very small car. She pulled into the space, mounted the kerb and drove into the tree in front of her, what’s that they say about stop when you hear the bump! We watched them for a while, she appeared to be teaching the boy something, perhaps she was teaching him how ‘not’ to drive.

We have now driven over 3000 miles on this trip. Tonight’s stop is south of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast at Boucholeurs. 

The town is famed for mussels and oysters. 

It is a quiet coastal resort, compared to the hustle and bustle of La Rochelle.

We have seen a few cyclists passing through on their way south, and we ourselves have also cycled this way on route to Spain following the Velodysee, Eurovelo 1 for John's 60th birthday treat.