Montsoreau to Tours

September 10^th – 12th

From Montsoreau to Chinon, on the Vienne, isn't far - though since we were on bikes we stopped at a church we were cycling by and it turned out to be a winner! If you are ever in the area, Candes-Saint-Martin collegiate church is worth a few minutes of your time. History, statues, stunning architecture, stained glass. 1km away from Montsoreau. 

Chinon castle, or at least the ruins of it, dominates the town of Chinon from across the river. 

There's a big area to explore both inside and out and while we were there there were dragons popping up all over the place. 

Royal Fortress of old, now restored, at least in part, over a period of 5 years, to its 15th century form, within medieval walls. With lovely surprises here and there, apart from the dragons - a reconstruction of a 12th century lifting machine, terrific views in all directions, a descent underground.

uncrowded campsite...

We left the Vienne to bike over the hills and back to the Loire, arriving in front of Ussé castle as the sun was setting. We'd already decided to leave this 'sleeping beauty' castle and just wanted to find the camping ground for the night. Pleasant surprise - almost empty, as it was now no longer 'the season', and secondly it was well-endowed with facilities - a lock-up for the bike, great showers and washing facilities, and friendly company.

Morning saw us away fairly early, with a busy day ahead. First, along a levée of the Loire to Langeais.

The Château of Langeais which has extensive grounds, many well-furnished rooms and some audio-visual displays. One of these recreates the secret wedding of Anne de Bretagne with Charles VIII, using wax figures and a sound and light display. 

One wall of the original fortress (994) has a reconstruction of the type of scaffolding used to build it. From the top you can look at the second castle (XV century) through the window. 

In the later castle there are beautiful furnishings including trunks and safes with exquisite locks and protection systems and some lovely tapestries lining the walls. There's even a working drawbridge which is raised and lowered daily. And over the road is a well-priced restaurant with delicious food. What more could we want?

On to Villandry, a chateau well known for its magnificent gardens, bought to be a 'dream home' for the family. Photos just don't capture it.

Joachim Carvallo, a Spanish doctor, the great-grandfather of the present owner bought it in 1906 to serve as a family home, and together with his American wife, Ann Coleman, created the gardens in 16th century (Renaissance) style, to match the style of the château. Henri, the great-grandson continues to work passionately to maintain and enhance the chateau's gardens. The château remains set up as a family home and welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, while the family occupy other buildings in the grounds. The gardens are truly amazing and can be seen from different angles as you visit the 'house'. If you get near Tours, this is a thoroughly worthwhile excursion. 

Entry/exit to bike path into Tours

Into Tours, then. Savonnières, where we camped for the night, lies on the Cher, not far from Villandry and 10km out of Tours. The night was cold, as nights had been for a week or two, and we were to draw our cycling to  halt at Tours, where we had parted from Chris at the end of July. Thus we had completed, in a roundabout way, the Loire à Vélo cycle route, which joins Nevers to Nantes, or Nantes to Nevers, if you prefer. 

We had also completed our cycling for 2013 - a constantly damp tent, short evenings and cold nights were taking the pleasure out of the camping and anyway it was no longer 'the season', with many camps on the point of closure (15th September is a common date). Altogether 2500 km, from June to part-way through September, with plenty of stops with friends and family. 

Just what we had envisaged for "More than a bike-ride".

Postscript: Tours to Orleans, about 6 days for us by bike, was covered in barely an hour by the Intercity train…

And we shortly set off for a different adventure, living another dream, without bikes. (Next post)

Gennes to Montsoreau

September 8th

It's not far from Gennes to Saumur. Just out of Saumur is the commune of Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, home of Veuve Amiot wines, a sparkling wine that we have been known to buy on a number of occasions. We called in to their winery just as it was closing for lunch and the people on duty kindly let us stay on for about 15 minutes of their lunch-hour (not a common practice in France), as we didn't feel we had the time to wait for the afternoon opening at 2pm. It was good to see where the wine came from and to meet such nice people as well.

Saumur castle from camping ground

We arrived in the Saumur camping ground at the end of lunchtime and were able to put up our tent and leave our gear before biking up to the castle for the afternoon. We managed to be in time for a display of 'medieval horsemanship' and had enough time to check out the castle before it closed. We hadn't been there since 1990 and it has changed a lot inside and is still being changed. A law of 2002 decreed that places which were designated in the past as museums have to BE museums, so there has been a lot of changes to the interior. The third floor isn't yet open again, and even the staff that we talked to haven't been up there. Fabulous views though and from the exterior a thoroughly 'castley' castle!

September 9th - to Montsoreau and Fontevraud

The Loire around Saumur is well known for houses built into the limestone hills. Apparently they are very good for living in, with temperatures pretty stable all year round. We would have eaten at one of the restaurants but we were an hour or so too early and they didn't do coffee! It was fun biking past these places. When you are in the train they just whoosh by.

We checked in at the wonderful campsite (for bikers) at Montsoreau. We wanted to go to the Abbey of Fontevraud, and were able to leave our gear in (free) lockers for bikers while we did so. In fact we didn't put our tent up there either, as there were four bunks in one room, and another sleeping area undercover, rather like a DOC hut, available for cyclists. Plus three fridges, tables, power points for charging phones, computers et al. Really imaginative and practical. 

Good for the colder weather, too. By September our summer bags were really not warm enough and our other bags are in NZ. Also the tent got really wet from the dew and had to be rolled up wet - no chance any more of drying before we left in the morning. So we were really pleased to be able to stay here.

We biked to Fontevraud, which was uphill nearly all the way, with a subsequent downhill roll on our return. Yay! The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud dates from the 12th century and was closely associated with the nobility. Four of Louis XV's daughters were educated there (very fashionable at the time). It has been called the largest monastic grouping in Europe, housing both monks and nuns and, as desired by the founder, the leader of the order was always an Abesse, (half of whom were of royal blood). 

Two of the 7 or 8 fireplaces.

The order was dissolved during the revolution, of course, and the monastery turned into a prison. Until 1963!!! When the Ministry of Culture took over. Then followed over 20 years of trying to make it look like a monastery again, so that it could be opened to the public. And the restoration and renovation continues. Last time I came here I was bowled over by the octagonal kitchen, which has fires at all angles so that you can choose the ones best placed for the wind on any one day. How clever was that! 

This time there were many other things that I found interesting, whether they were there previously or not - in particular an exhibition of the monastery in its time as a prison. In the Abbey church, recently restored, is the site of the graves of Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, Isabelle of Angoulême, marked by recumbent figures. It brings a lot of history together in one place.

Returning in good spirits (downhill) to Montsoreau, we had time to visit the chateau of Montsoreau. It's not large but it is very well placed, on the river bank, just on the confluence of the Vienne and the Loire. When it was first built the river formed its moats. Half fort, half residential (XV century), having done times also as apartments and warehouses, today it is interesting to the visitor because of the different audio-visual displays in 18 of its rooms. 

The theme is La Loire and there are displays of the boats that plied the river over time, including displays of what they took upstream and what they brought downstream. There is a time-lapse video of the Loire over the seasons, where you can watch it come up to flood level, covering the sandbanks that are so much part of the river, then losing all that extra volume, exposing newly formed sandbanks. There are lovely views to be had from the rooftops, and it is fun following the tour through the various rooms and displays.

The Loire, the Vienne and the sandbanks. In the view  below, there are troglodyte dwellings in the cliff in the background.