A Quiet Day in the Loire Valley

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Wednesday 3 June 2015

Amazing how things look after a good sleep. We got quite a surprise at the time - 8:10 am. Today was a quiet day. No long drives, no significant sightseeing, just a quiet day.

We seem to be having problems with our toilets on this trip. We broke the flush button in Bayeux, we hit our head on the wall trying to get into the toilet in Auray, we flooded the toilet area with the shower in Nantes, the toilet roll holder fell in the toilet in Granville. Today this toilet wouldn't stop flushing. We hope this trip won't be remembered for the toilets we have met. Luckily a young man, who does, sorted everything out, at least we hope he did. We demonstrated the problem for him and it worked perfectly. He fiddled with something and so far all is good.

Being in one place for nearly a week with good self catering facilities we took the opportunity of going shopping. Polly had us at a Mr Leclerc in Beaugency in no time at all. Mr Leclerc must be a very rich man. This complex was undergoing massive renovations. The trolley looked quite full as we arrived at the checkout. This was a "no cash" checkout. We chanced the arm and used the travel card. Voila, the card worked.

On our drive to the supermarket we were perturbed at how close we were staying to a nuclear power plant. We hope we don't come home smelling of uranium or exuding a wonderful glow. Perhaps we could be plugged into the national grid and help in a power crisis. We wonder about the little village on the backdoor steps of the plant. We guess they wear special alarm bracelets.

Later in the day we headed back over the river to Mer, another large village with a La Poste. Two elderly ladies helped with directions in wonderful French. Down here, turn right, up the hill, past the big building, turn left, then right and you are there. That is what we think they said and it was right. We arrived at our destination where a very helpful non English speaking person helped us with our mail. She guided us through the intricacies of the self service postal machine, took our money, and the parcels were on their way to NZ.

After a wander around Muides-sur-Loire it was cold beer time with crackers and local cheese. One was safe, the other looked as if it had gone mouldy. Yum! What a great way to end a relaxing day.

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Photos

Loire Valley
Our nearly neighbours, the local nuclear power plant.

Loire Valley
Chateau des Marais, not our accommodation

Loire Valley
This is our accommodation just next door.

Comments

[Peter & Anne Mills]

So nice torelive with you some of the places I visited many years ago. Most impressed by the light raila in Angers. Auckland could do well with this at a huge cost. Thank you. Take care !!

[Miltonrabbit]

Reliving past experiences
Thank you. Pleased to be of assistance. Over the next week we are reliving some of the area we visited 4 years ago. This time in more depth. Chateaux visiting time now. Might came back with some ideas for Alex. Keep well, keep warm.

[Grahame and Gretchen]

Your abode
Your abode looks very much like the one we had on the coast south of St Nazaire at a camping ground.Perhaps there is a one size fits all in France.Do you have to perch the ipad on top of the fridge and then stand on a chair to operate it like we did with the laptop?

[Miltonrabbit]

The tiny chateau in the woods
We have seen a whole lot of these places lined up in a yard outside Rennes. Our model is a Pacifique class establishment. We have reasonable Internet but only one can use it at a time, mainly my tablet, but Marilyn had her turn first. Until last night we had no neighbours anywhere. Then about 5 groups of French people arrived who all knew each other - oh boy did they talk. Temps up to 34 yesterday - cold beers from the fridge. Love to see how our large French neighbours use the tiny toilet. Perhaps they do it the French way - in public. Another hot one today. Talk about extremes - 12 to 18 and suddenly over 30. Who's complaining.