Day 5: Brou to Chateau Renault (84km)

---

---

I leave Polly and Chris asleep and get going at 9AM. I have worked out a plan to get to Vigeois by Friday which gives me a day in hand in case of rain. Today I hope to get to Chateau Renault.

I cut across to the D road to Mondoubleau. It is grey, threatening rain, and I am battling against a howling headwind bowling across wide featureless cornfields. Hard going, and no company now. I pass through the occasional tiny village, which is normally on a small river, so the descent into the village makes for some shelter, only to be followed by a hard climb up again to the windy plateau.

After an hour I check and find I have covered 20km which is after all nearly a quarter of today’s target so I feel better. Arrive in Mondoubleau to find it is market day. Everything I want is here. Queue for a yummy tarte aux abricots and then sit outside café to eat it with large café au lait. Feeling much better now. I decide to queue at stall selling charcuterie and where a man is boiling black sausages (boudins) in a huge evil-smelling steaming vat. Buy dry sausage and also a melon so I am now set up for lunch.

I set off again in a much more positive frame of mind. I decide to leave the D road and take a more easterly minor route via Lunay, which is more interesting and sheltered. Posters announce a big event coming up - the annual Lunay Plum Tart Fair!

I am now approaching the Loir, which I meet at Les Roches-l’Eveque where there are ancient limestone caves and dwellings, some of which are still used. This is the first time I have seen significant limestone features, and I also notice a lot more houses are built of limestone in this area. The seemingly endless cornfields are now giving way to a more varied landscape with pastures and forests.

As I approach Montoire I take a left turn to Lavardin, which looks like a more interesting crossing of the Loir than Montoire itself. Sure enough it is a very pretty village with stone bridge and dominated by a huge ruined castle. I find a perfect picnic spot by the river.

I head up a steep hill from Lavardin onto the plateau to join the D9 which takes me down to Chateau Renault at 4PM.

Chateau Renault has an impressive castle (early 17th C) and Hotel de Ville overlooking town. The Tourist Office give directions to an excellent camp site with municipal pool adjacent. Cost 4.95 euros.

I walk back into town for dinner. Finding a small bar with a table in the last of the sun, I decide to have a drink there. I am the only customer. Inside there is a juke box with numbers from the sixties (7 plays for a euro) - Shakin Stevens, The Shadows, Johnny Hallyday. I really am being transported back to the sixties!

Restaurant after restaurant closed due to “fermeture exceptionelle”, “Conges annuelles” etc etc. Finally I choose the Red House on the main square, from a shortlist of one. It proves fine.

---