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.