Camping in the Loire Valley & Mustard in Dijon

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We arrive into Tours where we did a bit of sightseeing, there was not much here except kebab 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 were heading straight to Chenonceaux, 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 mere 17 Euro a night BARGIN!!!!

So after a 1.5km yomp from the train station in the midday heat we arrived at the site and set about choosing our pitch - one right beside the river. So in true Ray Mears style, T dig out the Swiss army knife and started to cut down a couple of trees - once these where down, he set about skinning the bark of tree to provide our "tarpaulin" for shelter - he then fashioned a suspension device to prevent us from sleeping on the floor...........yeah right!!!! But with the tent up and ours being the smallest in comparison to everyone else’s, we really did look like we were survival camping with Ray Mears!!!

We spent the next three nights and days here pottering around, visiting the Chateau which was right next to us, it was called Chateau Chenonceau. We hired bikes and cycled to the next town to us called Blere, we were reminded why we normally did not cycle, because by the end of the 14 km round trip our bums were sooooo sore, T could have been mistaken for spending a night on D wing! This camp site was amazing, the wine and food was so cheap and so yummy, we did not want to go so soon but Switzerland was calling so we pushed on to 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 informed us that "the city's 25,000 students help keep the nightlife scene alive". This could potentially be an error of judgement by LP, the place had practically closed for the night by about 10:30pm.

We headed out for a evening meal in one of the numerous restaurants that circle the market, T attempted to order in French and the veal steak he thought he had ordered turned out to be veal Kidneys in two mustards - on first sight of the dish it looked like a plate of mushroom - T’s suspicions heightened, he should of opted for the large dish of Boeuf Bourguignon that G had!!!!!

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Comments

[Aimee]

Beautiful Photos
Loved your photos...esp. the poppies and vine yard photos.