Cheverny - somewhere near Dreux - Nampont-St-Martin

Sunday 27th August

Photos of our forest camping at Cheverny

and glimpses of the Chateau and the Mairie as we left the village:


This morning we continued with our journey north, but it wasn't without its hiccups.  We'd planned to do our take-home shopping at a supermarket en route, as many are open on Sunday mornings.  However, both the Auchan and the Leclerc in Blois were fermee so decided to leave it till tomorrow.  We were on the N10, which runs close to the small town of Bonneval (twinned with Westerham) expecting to find a park, probably close to the river, to stop and have lunch.  It looked a very pretty place, with several parking areas, but we saw the Route Barree sign as we entered and realised that behind the barrier, the market was in full swing.  The deviation was rather tricky - over tiny bridges and round some extremely sharp turns on roads full of parked cars! - but we escaped successfully and found a flowery/grassy area just out of town.

Our destination was just north of Dreux, listed in the France Passion book as in Montreil, but it was actually in the middle of nowhere, down a long bumpy track which led into a large field signed "Canoe France" beside the River Eure.  As soon as we got out of the van, we could smell the herbs, in fact mint was growing in the grass all over the field - every step created a lovely aroma.


On arrival at a 'Passion' we are meant to go and find the owner and introduce ourselves and make sure we are parked in the right spot (although there are always arrows with the logo).  John went off between the trees and found a notice with a little bell hanging from it, saying 'ring me', whereupon the chap appeared from behind a table where he was organising people hiring his canoes for the afternoon.
 
 He was very happy that we had parked in the field, but said that as he had no bookings for tomorrow, he would be locking the gate at 7pm, so we'd need to park outside the gate on the grass by the track after that time. 

It had been a busy canoeing day, so he actually didn't finish returning boats and people to their cars in the field till around 8, but by then we were happily settled, all alone, to watch a magnificent sunset.







 
 
 
Monday 28th August

En route today, we enjoyed doing our take-home shopping at Louviers Intermarche - always fun choosing biscuits for meetings and housegroup evenings, some wine, fruit, meaty things, and of course, a lettuce!  I usually come home with a lettuce because they are so big and so fresh as the supermarkets have mist spraying over them on the stand. 

We continued around Rouen and onto the A28, bringing us to around 100k from Calais for our last night.  We've come to La Ferme des Aulnes at Nampont-St-Martin, a small pretty campsite that we stayed at last year. 

Photos of us on the same pitch a year but 3 days are on our 'Short Trip to Normandy 2016' blog! (Although I mis-spelt Nampont on that occasion!)

And so we have had our last swim, shower and meal this trip!

 
We'll be on the 2.20pm ferry tomorrow afternoon and looking forward to tea with Peter and Hannah and our lovely grandchildren before home.  It's been a great trip but it will be so good to be with our family and friends again.

Thank you for being such loyal blog-followers!  Till the next time .....

St. Leonard de Noblat - Cheverny

Leaving St. Leonard - half of the viaduct - it follows the meander of the river

Friday 25th August

A bit more travelling north-wards this morning and it's good to be on a non-peage autoroute!  The most difficult part about the journey was finding room on an aire to have our lunch.  At the first 2 all the longer parking spaces were full (often with cars - grrr) and at the third we lined up behind another car and caravan on the sliproad coming away from the aire back onto the motorway!  We worked out that it was busier just because there were no toll charges. 

Something interesting en route - between Junctions 21 and 20, before Argenton-sur-Creuse - we clocked up our first 10,000 miles in the van.  No not on this trip - since May 2015 when it was new.

After Chateauroux, we left the autoroute and came north on the D956 - what a delightful road, with very attractive villages and towns along the way.  This chateau is at Valencay.

We reached Cheverny, just south of the River Loire, during the afternoon and settled on a campsite that we stayed at many years ago.  It's set in a forest of very tall trees with mistletoe and has a pool with water warm enough to persuade John to get in! 

Saturday 26th August

The days are starting off a little cooler now, but by about 10am, the sun is as hot as ever.  Today it was 30deg. But despite the heat, we really wanted to go for a bike ride.  This area is geared for cyclists and routes are mapped out and signed well, taking in villages and chateaux along the way.  We have visited many of the chateaux before, including Cheverny, so didn't go in.  But because we didn't go in, I didn't manage to take a photo, but it is stunning and well worth a visit.

 
Wanting to find somewhere cool and shady to eat our lunch, we went into the village of Cellettes and found a pretty park beside the river.


 The route was lovely, with some beautiful houses, gardens with flowers and veg (one had tomatoes the size of melons!), fields of crops from sweetcorn and barley to Christmas trees.  We came across quite a few different fauna too - hundreds of black chickens huddled under trees at one farm, horses, donkeys and sheep.  Two beautiful young deer were beside one road, but ran for it when they saw me reach for my camera!

Today the usual routine of swim, shower, get dinner was changed to swim, shower, walk to the restaurant!  And very good it was too -  needed to put the photos on the blog as this may have to be our last meal out this trip.

Larnagol - St. Leonard de Noblat

Wednesday 23rd August

Yes indeed, another scorcher!  We needed to have a bit of exercise, though, so set off to the nearby village of Larnagol, by (you've guessed it) another uphill path.
 
 It wasn't too far though, so by the time we'd walked around the village, looked at the chateau
 
 and walked down a flight of ancient steps, we were pleased to find the 'Annexe', a crafty/gifty/coffee shop in a square room a bit like a village hall.  Madame behind the counter had a little table with a kettle, she scratched her head when John asked for cafe creme - did she have some milk? - ah yes, a little bottle in the cupboard, then she scratched her head again when I asked for green tea!  This time, she rummaged around and found a wooden box with a variety of teas and although there didn't seem to be any green, I was very happy with Earl Grey! 

We sat on the sofa with our drinks, then looked at all the local crafts on sale - some very unusual animal models, foodie things, jewellery, paintings and bags.  If you ever spot me wearing a pair of jeans hanging off my shoulder, you'll know that I succumbed to one of the bags!!

 
After a look at the beautiful River Lot, we wandered back to our shady spot for the rest of the day - with a short break for a dip in the pool. 

Thursday 24th August

Moving on day again today, travelling 140 miles north to a small municipal site east of Limoges, at St. Leonard de Noblat.  You never can tell what times French campsites will be open around the middle of the day.  Sometimes, of course, they are open all the time and if the guardien is having lunch, then you are waved off to find a pitch and see him later, other times they close say from 12.30 - 2.30 and put the barrier down, so you have to park on the carpark till the reopening time.  Others, like this one at St. Leonard de Noblat (great name eh?) when we arrived about 2pm, the notice said the reception was closed from 11.30 - 5.30 and the barrier was down! 

Well, we did plan to go and find the town this afternoon, anyway, so off we went, up the path to see what there was to see.  Eventually we came to a sign that could be interesting - "Historail" museum.
 
 
We went in and Monsieur immediately stopped his speel to a small group of people, to take our money, then continued .... ad infinitum ....  He was behind a large model railway of Cherbourg Station, explaining in minute detail how the old steam train system worked.  Occasionally, and only very occasionally, he would make an engine run up or down the track to make his point.
 

A moving train!

The group of people were made up of families with quite young children, so all they (and we) wanted was to watch the trains!  But he droned on and on and didn't seem to notice that even the people who understood his language were losing the will to live!  Remember we are all rather hot (30deg) too!

Well, we didn't really get our 10Euros's-worth, but we sloped off after having a look round his exhibits ...

... and found a little cafe called Totali-The in the town centre for a very, very welcome cold drink.

 
We arrived back at the campsite just on 5.30 and were greeted by a very friendly Dutch Guardienne.  At 7.30 she drove slowly around the site saying goodnight to everyone - she was just off home again!

Cordes-sur-Ciel - Larnagol

Monday 21st August

Can't believe that we felt chilly when we got up this morning!  That's a first.  So I decided to leave my husband of 50 years and take my armchair up campsite to the first rays of sun coming over the hilltops.  I did come back after getting nicely roasted though!  The warmth picked up from then on, so that by the time we'd walked the mile to the bottom of Cordes-sur-Ciel, we were very happy to ride up to the old town on the land train. 
 
As soon as were through the first ancient gateway, I recognised that we had definitely been here before.  Soon we reached the open 'halle' all set out for lunch - yes, that's where we ate then!  We need to hunt out the diaries when we get home, because we can't remember when - it must have been BNZ (before blogs 2006).  Anyway, we had lunch there again at the Auberge de la Halle - crepes for dessert.

Such a delightful place to re-visit.  We now think we like it more than Carcassonne.  The buildings date back from 13C and are amazing. 





 
 
 
 
 
 


Tuesday 22nd August

After another very warm night and waking up a few times, we eventually slept on till nearly 9 o'clock!  Our Dutch neighbours were beginning to worry about us ... 

The huge pitch we were leaving

and leaving the campsite

and leaving Cordes-sur-Ciel

 Then we left one lovely spot to travel about 50 miles north to another - this one on the north bank of the River Lot at Larnagol.  It was a twisty/windy/uppy/downy sort of road and full of beautiful villages and views - fortunately, with very few other vehicles. 

All was fine till the last hurdle, the village on the south side of the Lot, where the "route" was "barree"d!  This happens quite often on French roads.  John had to make a very tight right-hander down a very narrow, steep lane with overhanging rocks to get us back on track!

Our first view of the Lot

The temperature reached around 34 deg. this afternoon, so we settled on another huge pitch with plenty of shade and spent a bit of time in and by the pool (photo tomorrow).

We are promised(?) another scorcher tomorrow.