The Loire Valley

Tuesday 13th August Lailly en Val to Nouan sur Loire




We had breakfast by the lake in Lailly and wathed a large fish being landed.  I think this is the first we have seen being cuaaght suring our travelling period despite the numerous fishermen we have met.

We left the aire and drove down to a Super U where we were expecting to get some LPG as we were very low but they had none. We continued down the Loire a short way to a municipal campsite at Nouan sur Loire. our plan was to use this as a base to cycle to some of the chateau. It was a lovely campsite and only cost 11 euros a night including electricity and internet. We found a good spot with shade and parked up.

There are over 600km of cycle routes along the Loire and today we decided to cycle to one of the main chateaux in the region Chambord. It was only about 12km away. The route started along the Loire and then headed inland. Although the path was a bit rough in places it was generally very good and well sign posted.

Chamboard is a huge chateau. Its building (in its current form) was started by King Francis 1 in 1915 when he was only 25 years old. It was intended as a hunting lodge but it eventually became an extravagant chateau. We approached the chateau via a leafy vista and we chose here to sit own and have our lunch. Mike and I had already decided that we would only visit 2 or 3 chateau and this was one of them. (There are 71 in the area!).  I was pleased to get a three euro discount for being a foreign higher education teacher  thanks to my Keele card. The chateau has 426  rooms but fortunately we did not or could not visit them all. Some rooms were quite elaborate but others were empty rooms. A lovely feature was the double spiral stone staircase. It comprises two concentric spiral flights of stairs that wound themselves independently around a hollow central column. It is possible but not proven that Leonardo da Vinci helped with the design of this. From the top fourth floor there were lovely views across the french countryside.

Francis 1 reigned for 32 years but only spent 72 days at this chateau but his son Henry II and Louis XIV continued the building project.

We cycled back along the same route arriving at the campsite about 6pm where we then enjoyed a BBQ in the evening sun.

Wednesday 14th August Blois

We had decided to stay for two nights at this campsite. I worked in the morning whilst Mike washed clothes and the van. We had our lunch and then prepared ourselves for a longer cycle to the chateau at Blois about 20km away.

It was another hot day with a very blue cloudless sky. The cycle route ran along the Loire right up to Blois. The river is quite wild here: wide, brown, fast flowing. There is no commercial activity - just a few kayaks on the water. No one appears to swim in it here. it was a long cycle and it was nice to reach some shade by the Chateau when we arrived. We had already decided we would not go inside this chateau but we admired it from outside and then walked around the medieval town. One of the interesting sights was the House of Magic. Whilst we were looking at the front of the building 4 giant serpents suddenly appeared! Further up near the twon hall there was a rather bizarre display of brightly coloured metal animals.

We spent a couple of hours here and started on the return cycle. Mike got a puncture but fortunately we were less than 1km from home. I cycled on to put the kettle on and by the time Mike was back tea was made. That evening he mended his puncture whilst I cooked supper, which once again we ate outside in the lovely warm evening air.