The Loire Chateaux Trail

Mon : 9th June, 2014.  It looked for a while as though we might not ride into Saumur after all as through the night and into the morning, we had thunder, lightning, strong winds and heavy rain, but, as seems to be a pattern in Europe, by mid morning it had cleared up and so we set off on our ride.  It was an easy, cool and pleasant 10km ride, mostly on quiet little country roads through farmlands and after arriving in the town and locking up the bikes, we did our usual leisurely, exploratory stroll around.

Much of the town was closed as it was a public holiday today, which meant there were no huge crowds. 

There was a field of asparagus growing near our campsite, which we had passed on the way in and we were hoping to see the farmer on the return journey, to ask if we could buy a few spears, but unfortunately he was not around.

We cooled down after the warm ride back to the camp with a swim at the ‘beach’ and before retiring for the night chatted to our neighbours, a French couple who live along the Loire River and passed on a few helpful tips. 

Tues : 10^th June, 2014.  After stopping at a supermarket to supplement our supplies, we took a wrong turn (not an unusual occurrence) when driving through Saumur and did a detour through the countryside but managed to find our way back to the river, stopping at Montsoreau for our picnic lunch.  From there we drove to Villandry to visit the chateau and wonderful gardens,

spending a couple of hours there, then had a cup of coffee at a nearby café and a short stroll through the town before heading off to our overnight campsite at La Ville aux Dames, negotiating our way around the large city of Tours with the help of our trusty GPS ‘Kenny’. We took the toll road around Tours and it was well worth the 0.90 euros to beat the city traffic.

Wed : 11^th June, 2014.   The Chateau Royal d’Amboise was our first port of call today…arriving not long after opening time, avoiding huge crowds and so were able to wander and enjoy the fabulous castle and grounds at our leisure.

Our next destination was Chenonceau Chateau, a large and sumptuous Renaissance mansion built over the River Cher.  When we arrived we found a shady place to park, opened all the windows and hatches and ate lunch with a lovely cool breeze wafting through the van.  It was so pleasant we stayed there for a couple of hours…reading, snoozing, relaxing…then ambled around to the ticket office where we bought the tickets to explore the chateau.  There were hundreds of people doing the very same thing…some of the rooms were so crowded we weren’t able to enter, it was stifling in most of the chateau as there were no open windows, we felt disappointed that we weren’t able to have a proper viewing of this magnificent castle and so spent more time in the gardens which were busy but not as crowded as indoors, and there was no shortage of fresh air! 

The campsite we chose for tonight’s stopover is situated about 2kms from Chenonceau, is on the river bank, with lots of shade and grass and is called Le Moulin Fort, #1629 in the ACSI book, an ideal place to stay for chateau visitors.  Our nextdoor neighbours are Kiwis from Mt Wanganui and they are travelling through Europe in a new motorhome they bought in England and intend to ship it back home at about 4000 quid for transport..

Thurs : 12^th June, 2014.  It’s been a gorgeous day.  Early-ish this morning, we said goodbye to Wayne & Maureen, the Kiwis, and rode across the bridge to the riverbank opposite, then followed the river path for a couple of kms, heading into the town which hadn’t woken up yet, back across the bridge to a hotel/café where we had a cup of coffee each with a croissant,

back to the river and rode along a bumpy, sometimes muddy track (due to recent rains) to take yet more photos of Chateau Chenonceau.  (How many photos of one chateau can a person take?)

Back at the campsite we had tea and toast while watching a cruise boat on the river,

then packed up for the short drive to Chaumont-sur-Loire.  We didn’t visit the castle but went for a ride along the river, had lunch and drove to Chateau Cheverny which has been in the same family for more than 6 centuries and is said to be the most magnificently furnished chateau in the Loire Valley. 

We are more than willing to believe that claim and enjoyed our visit immensely.  Although it was busy there, it was not crowded and everyone, without exception, showed consideration to fellow visitors which unfortunately, wasn’t the case yesterday at Chenonceau.

To conclude our visit, we also visited the local boulangerie/patisserie and bought a couple of f.a. cream cakes for this evening’s dessert, then made our way back to the Loire, near Blois for our overnighter.