Neufchatel-en-Bray

Camping Ste Claire, Neufchatel-en-Bray

Tuesday 9th September

The lovely weather has stayed with us right to our last day!  We particularly like this site because the cycle path here passes right beside it and being an old railway line, it stays flat, but goes through some attractive undulating countryside.

I will catch up with John eventually!

  The houses are really lovely too.  We cycled south on the path to Beaubec-la-Rosiere, stopping at a wayside cafe for a drink on the way out and an ice cream on the way back, relaxing in the deckchairs there for a while.

The cafe

  Our meal in the restaurant this evening was good, but not quite cordon bleu - I had 'Cock with wine' and John had 'Pig Mustard'!!  We had taken the dictionary with us, but didn't seem to need it.

St.Michel to St.Michel to Neufchatel

Sunday 7th September

We left St.Michel-Chef-Chef this morning in glorious sunshine and with loads of people already on the beach, most of them collecting moules out on the rocks and in the shallow water.

 There was also a constant stream of cars approaching the area, once we were on the main road - perhaps this was a good day to leave.  Before we crossed the bridge over the Loire estuary at St. Nazaire, we drove to a viewpoint so we could record our arrival at the end of the river.

Then we came north to the village of Courtils, very close to Mont St.Michel - so beginning our journey home.  This was another beautiful site (cheap because of ACSI in September) with a lovely pool to relax in.

 Our evening stroll took us to the edge of the marshland on the coast path, with a great view of the Mont in the evening haze and setting sun.

Monday 8th September

We covered more miles today - quite a bit cooler, but still sunny - and have stopped at one of our favourite transit sites in Normandy, at Neufchatel-en-Bray.  The owner takes enormous pride in keeping the site in pristine condition.  Most sites by September, have a lot of worn-out grass, leaves starting to fall and hedges getting a bit overgrown.  Here though, every blade of grass is a bright green and the hedges and trees trimmed to perfection.  The photo shows us about to eat our last home-cooked dinner this trip - we plan to eat at the site restaurant tomorrow, our last
night before home.

By the Seaside

Saturday 6th September

More chilling out with a short cycle to 2 geos - one of them must have been in the owner's garden, because it was a large bucket on a string over his fence - a swim in the pool and a walk to the harbour and back along the sand.  Just enjoying this beautiful weather - how much longer can it last? 

St, Michel-Chef-Chef

Thursday 4th September

Left Montjean this morning, driving straight onto the yellow road on the map following the south bank of the river.  This part of the river is very attractive, partly because it is so wide that it splits into several narrower streams.  We stopped for 11-ses at one of these lovely spots near Champtoceaux.

 Soon after this, though, we reached the end of tranquility - we were suddenly on the Nantes bypass and Traffic!  One of the roundabouts had a huge Auchan, so we bought some more supplies of food to see us through our last week in France.  And so we headed for the Atlantic coast ... aiming for the delightful sounding St. Michel-Chef-Chef.  So as yet, we haven't seen the estuary of the Loire - we'll do that when we leave here.  We are at a small campsite just across a minor road from the sea with tall ancient pine trees to give us shade from the very hot sun.  This evening was low tide and we walked on the sand, paddled in the shallow water and sat on a seat watching the sun set - such a great experience watching the unobscured sun disappear into the sea.  We don't think we've seen such a perfect one since we were in New Zealand.

Friday 5th September

We are chilling out here, so not so much to report, but we did discover why this village is so called.  We were just going to the boulangerie for a baguette, but across the road from there we spotted an interesting shop called Les Delices de St.Michel.
 

 That sounded like food, so we went in.  Wow - what a display of galettes (biscuits), cakes and other yummy, tempting stuff.  This company was started by Joseph Grellier in 1906, a master patissier whose wife thought it would be a good idea to try and sell his unique biscuits to the rich Parisennes who came to the seaside.  It took off and now there are 7 factories producing St. Michel biscuits and cakes.  We've bought enough of them for everyone to try some when we get back!  Anyway, in the shop was an information board that explained all this and had a section headed "Pourquoi Chef Chef?"  At one time the village was called St. Michel de Chevecier.  A chevecier was the "dignitaire" of a convent or abbey.  There were many of them in this region.  The Chevecier-Chef was the principal at St.Michel and so that became the name of where he lived.  Then the name gradually got shortened to St. Michel-Chef-Chef! As the board said - Et Voila!

Chilling out later meant a lazy swim in the heated, covered pool - John enjoyed it too, but he'd just got out when he took the photo(!) and a cycle along the seafront to see the little harbour and have a lie on the beach for a while.  There are lots of these fishing huts on stilts along here - we've seen them before around Brittany.  Today we watched one actually being used - The large net is lowered by counterbalance and left on the seabed, then raised some time later, hopefully with a catch.  The one in the photo did hook something out of the big net with an ordinary fishing net, but we don't know what it was.

Montjean and La Pommeraye

Wednesday 3rd September

We decided we'd like to explore this area, so booked in for another night and set off on our bikes.  We followed the riverside for a while and then away from it to the village of La Pommeraye.  On our map it looked flat, but we soon discovered that there was a lot of up involved!  But of course that gave us views, so with a lot of pushing the bikes and puffing, past rows and rows of vines, now looking as though they are ready for picking, we reached La Pommeraye.  After eating our filled baguettes from the boulangerie in Montjean, we found a few geos and then set off down again - different route.  This was much quicker than going up (!) and we could look down on Montjean.  The church is built really high up in the village and this road brought us straight to this level.  It is more like a cathedral than a small town church, with huge flying buttresses.

A lot of campsites now have white shiplap cabins for hire - they appear to have superceded the Eurocamp-style tents - but some of them have private owners, with little gardens, sheds, gnomes, whatever ....  A man and a cat live in one close by us and when we were relaxing, reading, after our dinner, we realised that the cat was happily lapping up all the chicken juices from the foil in our Remoska.  It also had some piripiri sauce in it, so we hope he didn't have a tummy upset later!  When his owner called him in for his dinner, he didn't seem to be in any hurry .....

Zoomed view of Montjean church from campsite in evening sun

Daniel's Vineyard and Brissac-Quince

Tuesday 2nd September

Daniel had warned us that his staff arrive at 8 in the morning and would be driving all their tractors and machinery past our door, but we were awake before then.  When we drove past them in the vineyard later, they seemed to be preparing a patch of ground for new planting.  We had a wander around the village before we left and admired some lovely houses (they all seem to have so much land) but couldn't find the boulangerie. 

 
We drove to Brissac-Quince, a short way south, as Daniel had said it was worth a visit and had another wander about - here the boulangerie was shut for the owners' holiday - how often have we seen that!  So what do you have to do if you can't find any bread for lunch - find a good restaurant instead!  (And anyway, the chateau is closed Tuesdays!!!)  The Restaurant Aux deux Terraces (we sat at the one at the back) was excellent - the dessert we shared was very yummy.

Chateau at Brissac-Quince

 Our parking place at Brissac was an Aire de Camping Cars and a Dutch couple in their van had nodded hello there, greeted each other again a couple of times in the town, then when we stopped further along our route by the river at Chalonnes-sur-Loire for a cup of tea and a snooze under a tree - there they were again!  We chatted a bit and then they sat a few feet away from us, similarly enjoying the afternoon.  A few more miles further west, we stopped at Camping La Promenade at Montjean-sur-Loire for the night + internet access.

Walk, sculpture and a free night!

One of the geocaches!

Monday 1st September

Another beautiful morning and having done some geocaching research, we drove to a parking spot near the lake that we'd seen yesterday.  From there we enjoyed a 5 mile walk around the lake and through a forest that reminded us of Graffham Common - sandy, rocky ground with pine and silver birch trees and bracken.  There were 13 geos to find along the way and we needed to collect a number from each one (to be able to work out the co-ordinates for a bonus cache at the end).  Unfortunately, we couldn't find 5 of them, so working out the bonus was a bit tricky, but we did and we found it! 

We'd read in our trusty (Eyewitness Travel from Horsham Library!) guide book that not far from here, near St. Georges-des-Sept-Voies, was a very unusual sculpture to see - l'Helice Terrestre de l'Orbiere (The Earth's Helix). Jacques Warminsky (and friends) created this by cutting a series of galleries into the soft limestone hillside from a former troglodyte village.  A young lady with excellent English gave us an introduction to the work and then pointed out several openings into the rock face for us to go and explore.  It's quite hard to describe really - there were room-sized caves with tunnels and steps, both up and down, all with different shapes sculpted (is that a word?) for you to feel as you go.  One passage led into a hollow sphere of rock and when you stood in the centre and spoke, it sounded like you were talking into a microphone - the sound bouncing off the concave wall.  Another passage went into a 'black hole' for you to feel your way about, but as the floor was very uneven everywhere and my ankle being a little delicate .... I declined to go in!  John wasn't too keen either!  When you eventually emerge from all this, you climb a staircase outside, from the village level to normal ground level, passing more shapes that are all the reverse forms (convex) of the inside ones.  M. Warminsky's philosophy is a little beyond us, but it was a very interesting and fun work of art to see and experience. 

We continued on our journey after that and stopped for the night at another delightful France Passion vineyard called Domaine des Deux Moulins at Juigne-sur-Loire.  We were greeted by Daniel- the owner, who told us to park up wherever we wished and pointed out the water tap, electric point and toilet.  We didn't use the electric point because we chose a spot on grass too far from it, but later in the evening we used all the other facilities - because not only was there a loo and wash basin, but a fantastic shower with oodles of hot water - none of this pressing a knob for a short spurt of water at a campsite!  In fact the water was so powerful that I dropped our now-small bar-of-soap and it disappeared down the plughole!  And of course, all this is FREE!  BUT - we of course agreed to the degustation of Daniel's wines!  We tried 4 and both liked them all, so we've now done our wine-shopping to bring home.  Daniel is now a very good friend(!) and before we left, he gave us a gift of another bottle of rose - he and his wife do 'chambres-d'hote' as well, so we recommend him.

Dinner at the vineyard

Les Rosiers -sur-Loire

Sunday 31st August

Left Chinon this morning and drove westward, crossing the Loire onto the northern bank, past Saumur (been there before) and on to Les Rosiers-sur-Loire on the opposite side of the river to the larger village of Gennes.  This is another campsite with both indoor and outdoor pools, but this time I went in (both) on my own while John enjoyed a deckchair for a while.  A short(ish) bike ride took us to l'etang de Joreau which looked rather calm and lovely in the sunshine.  Ballooning is pretty popular around these parts (saw some at Chinon) and this evening 3 took off not far away and floated over us while we had our dinner. 

Chinon

Saturday 30th August

Too sunny and hot to rush about this morning, so didn't venture into Chinon till nearly lunch-time.  There's quite a long narrow island in the middle of the river (the Vienne not the Loire - slip of the fingers yesterday), with a steep road down onto it from the bridge.  As Wendy and Lionel (Paignton friends) are staying in a gite here later in September, we went to do a reccy - there are about 6 houses, then several large gardens/allotments with sheds in, one of which is a bar(!), then a picnic area at the end of the island.  Whichever house theirs is, they will have a wonderful view of the chateau.  We carried on over the bridge into Chinon and by this time, we were ready for lunch. There were so many delightful-looking restaurants to choose from, but we settled on "At'Able!" - we assume it's a play on words for 'a table'.  Anyway, the food was excellent and the loos beautiful! (One never used to be able to say that a French loo was beautiful!!!)
After admiring some of the ancient buildings in the old town, we took the lift up to the top of the cliff.  This is very modern, unattended and free - and saves the slog up the old stone steps to the chateau.

It was well worth visiting the chateau, particularly for the views from the towers (lots of spiral stone staircases to climb) and getting to grips with some of the history.  It was here that Joan of Arc was granted all the armies she needed to conquer those pesky English and call a halt to the Hundred Years War.

Sonzay/Marnay/Chinon

Apologies if anyone looked at this post before the photos went on.  The site turned the wifi off at 9.45pm, just as we were doing the photos!!  Now added.


Wednesday 27th August

Another grey morning, but by the time I'd hung a wash-load on the airer and we were ready to get out on the bikes, it was brightening up.  We went in the direction of the nearby Chateau de la Motte (private home) to find some geocaches and then decided that we would continue for a few more miles to the village of Ambillou.  Ate our picnic and had plenty of rest in a park by a lake before returning to Sonzay by a different route, picking some lovely blackberries on the way (we did get off the bikes to do that!). 

Thursday 28th August

Left Sonzay and drove back south towards the Loire again and stopped to do some shopping in Cinq-Mars-la-Pile (what a name?) at Leader Price - rather like Aldi.  The Chateau at Villandry sounded very appealing, so we went to visit it today.

It dates from 1536 but was bought in 1906 by the Spanish Carvallo family who redesigned the inside and then restored the Renaissance ornamental gardens using information written by a C16 architect, to its former glory.  Apparantly Joachim Carvallo pioneered the opening of private historical residences to the public.  Henri Carvallo and his family now live in the chateau, but the part open to the public had some beautifully decorated and furnished rooms with amazing views over the gardens.

 We also climbed the spiral staircase to the top of the tower for even better views.  The gardens are excellently maintained by 10 gardeners - there's hardly a leaf out of place - and are on 3 levels, with the water garden at the top, flower gardens level with the chateau and below, the world's largest ornamental kitchen garden.  There's also a herb garden, a sun garden with 3 'rooms' - the Cloud room (blue and white flowers and shrubs), the Sun room (yellows and orange) and the Children's room (lawns, play area and sitting area under fruit trees).  We had fun going through the maze too and to quote from the leaflet "Planted with hornbeam, it symbolises man's path on earth.  Of Christian inspiration, and unlike the Greek labyrinth, it has no dead ends.  The aim of the visitor is not therefore to find an exit, but to raise himself humanly and spiritually by reaching the lovely hut in the centre."
It turned out to be a much hotter day today, so after all that walking about, we felt we needed an ice cream to see us on our way.  This wasn't very far - to a France Passion at Marnay not far from Azay-le-Rideau beside the River Indre (just before it enters the Loire).  This France Passion isn't one of the usual vineyards, but the Musee Maurice Dufresne - a museum of old cars, steam engines, farm machinery etc. When the museum closed at 7 we were left with the place to ourselves!  We may go in the museum in the morning.

Friday 29th August

After a very quiet night, we became the museum's first visitors this morning.  Armed with a handset with an English commentary, we ventured into this amazing collection of ancient machinery, all lovingly restored by Maurice Dufresne and his friends.  He collected all these 3000 exhibits all through his adult life (from the 50s) until he set up this museum in the 1980s, then adding to it until he died just a few years ago.  The building was originally a paper mill on an island on the banks of the River Indre.  The exibits date from the early C20 - cars, lorries, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, farm equipment and even one of Bleriot's prototype planes.  He rescued a traction engine from a lake in the south of France - only the funnel was sticking up out of the water and it took him several years to persuade the family that owned it, to sell it to him!  Then he had to get it here!  The strangest thing was the mobile guillotine dating from the Revolution - built on a cart so it could be taken wherever needed!  The second picture isn't a bus, it's a mobile dentist, the back half still with it's ominous-looking chair - oooer!  He, his wife and 3 children lived in the front half.  The commentary said this was probably the one of the first camper-vans.

We have 2 questions for our readers from this visit. 
1.  What is the object in this photo? (sorry it's dark, should have used flash) Hint - used in the home.

2.  What's wrong here?

The restaurant seemed very nice, but we just had a drink there and drove on to Chinon.  We'd thought we would just park up, visit the town and then move on a bit, but parking was a bit tricky, so we drove over the bridge to the campsite at St. Jacques and had our lunch on our lovely flat, grassy pitch in the sunshine before having a walkabout both the village here and Chinon, back over the Vienne.  The chateau is very high up and as impressive as many others and very photogenic from our side of the bridge.  We shall stay another day and go and see more tomorrow.

 

PS  I have been taking the advice of Hannah T. re my ankle - well at least some of the time!  It is improving but aches by the end of the day.  The pretty colours are fading now too.