Lovely Loire

We awoke amongst the vines on Friday morning after a very peaceful night’s sleep. We had arranged to have a wine tasting after breakfast so we duly took on our task. We ended up buying three bottles of their Crèmant de Loire before spending the day exploring the area.

First stop was the fascinating troglodyte village of Rochemenier. Having quarried the sandstone, the villagers then dug out whole communities to live in. The village museum showed two ‘farms’ complete with stables, bakery, village hall and houses. Apparently, people lived and worked there from the 1300s until the 1960s.

Then onto the Abbaye de Fontveraud, where Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine and Richard the Lionheart were buried. Their bodies have long since disappeared following the French Revolution but their effergies remain. The Abbaye is huge and had up to 700 nuns there at one point with magnificent cloisters. It also became a prison under Napoleon before being restored in recent years.

Our next stop before going to our aire for the night was Pierre et Lumière. One stonemason took over ten years to build scale sandstone sculptures of the chateaux and churches across the Loire Valley in a cave below ground. Quite extraordinary.

Our park up for the night was in Saumur, a beautiful medieval town with an imposing chateau overlooking the river Loire. Our aire (bargain at €15 including electricity) was on an island in the middle of the river. We cycled up to the chateau (thank god for electric bikes!) to amazing views and the sight of five hot air balloons. Back to the van for a quick change and then dinner on a boat moored on the island. Lovely burgers and a bottle of Rosè Cremant that was cheaper than the still wine. Perfect end to the day.