We arrive into Tours where we did a bit of sight seeing, there was not much here except kabab shops "elephant legs" where prevalent and could compete with London's Leicester Square. Tours was a transport hub kind of town and our entrance to the Loire Valley. We where heading straight to Chenonceaux, this is a stunning area made famous for its formidable chateau - Chateau Chenonceaux.
We had already booked our plot at a wonderful, cheap, amazing camp site called Le Moulin Fort, a mear 17 Euro a night BARGIN!!!!
So after a 1.5km yomp from the trainstation in the midday heat we arrive at the site and set about choosing our pitch - one right beside the river. So in true Ray Mears style, I dig out the swiss army knife and start to cut down a couple of trees - once these where down, i set about skinning the bark of tree to provide our "tarpolin" for shelter - i then fashion a suspension device to prevent us from sleeping on the floor........... With the tent up and ours beinging the smallest in comparison to everyone elses, we really did look like we're survival camping with Ray Mears!!!
We spent the next 3 nights and days here pottering around visting the chateau which was right next to us called Chateau Chenonceau. We hired bikes and cycled to the next town to us called Blere, I remembered why we don't normally cycle, by the end of the 14 km trip our bums were sooooo sore, i could have been mistake for a night spent on D wing! This camp site was amazing, the wine and food was so cheap and so yummy, we didn't want to go so soon but Switzerland was calling so we pushed onto Dijon to get a connecting train to Bern.
While waiting for our train to Dijon we had our first of many picnics on a station platform, very nice wine and cheese mmm.
Dijon is a cool little place medieval and quaint, we stayed in Hotel B&B for 48 euros. Dijon is famous for Mustard and in our opinion not much more, it could have been mistake for a Sunday morning prayer group, the Lonely Planet informs us that "the city's 25,000 students help keep the nightlife scene alive". One of what could potentially be an error of judgement by
LP. The place had practically closed for the night by about 10:30pm.
We headed for a evening meal in one of the numerous restaurants that circle the market, I attempt to order in French and the Veal steak I await turns out to be veal Kidneys in two mustards - on first sight of the dish it looked like a plate of mushroom - my suspicions hightened, I should of opted for the large dish of Boeuf Bourguigonne that G had!!!!!
Part of trip:
London to Sydney Overland