Saumur - Orleans - Moncaret (Dodogne)

---

After a hot night despite having a fan running all night, we breakfasted, packed up our gear and then all got taxis to the railway station. Deborah, Richard and Daniel got off at Tours as they were going to England for their further holiday with Dan. Cherie continued with us to Orleans where we got a bus back to our first hotel where we picked up the car and miraculously managed to fit 5 people’s gear into the car plus ourselves. We set the route on the GPS to Moncaret and headed right back to Tours where we had just come from! This was going to be the fastest route south for us. The distance to Moncaret was 502km which Lindsay drove pretty much in one hit with a break for lunch and a stop to revive. The countryside was not inspiring, motorways never are. You can’t see much except cars speeding along at 130kph or so and a fairly flat landscape with crops of grain, sunflowers and grapes.

After picking up some groceries close to Moncaret we followed the instructions to the gite which seems to be a convoluted way from the village but will no doubt soon be more familiar..

We were met by Sue who showed us around the gite and surrounds. With good weather continuing we should make good use of the outdoors as there is plenty here to do – a BBQ, table tennis, hammocks, a jacuzzi, large swimming pool, plenty of places to sit, a couple of friendly pooches. The gite will be a bit cramped when we’re all on deck but I’m sure we’ll manage just fine.

---