The last post was from Loches, a beautiful town, with a lovely camp site and hot sunny weather. But we needed to move on if we were to reach the end of the Loire as planned. Next stop was Villandry, famous for its gardens set out in renaissance style. It really is spectacular, with huge areas of flowers and vegetables planted in intricate patterns and raised walkways to view them from.
That evening we stopped at an aire at Azay le Rideau, which also has a chateau (where hasn't) - this time famous for its mirror garden, or the reflection of the chateau in the moat.
The aire was just a car park, but it was so hot that all the motorhomers got our chairs out and sat outside till bed time.
Our next chateau was at Breze. Some of us were a little chateau-weary by now, but this was one with a difference as it was built on top of a series of troglodyte caves which had clearly been inhabited by people and their livestock. The chateau had the deepest dry moat in France and there was a real warren of workshops, bakery, winery etc built into the rock under the outer castle wall.
We stopped for a couple of days at Saumur, on another camp site on an island in the Loire. We could see the chateau from the site, so didn't feel the need to visit! We went for a bike ride along the river instead, which was lovely. The river is very shallow in summer and there are lots of herons and egrets and cormorants. Surprisingly you are not allowed to swim in the river, we think because of sinking sands and odd currents.
After Saumur, we stopped for a night at Chalons sur Loire, at an aire with a lovely view.
Then on to Nantes - a very nice city campsite where we were lucky to get the last pitch. We enjoyed Nantes, which seems to be a go-ahead sort of city, with an excellent tram system and lots of interesting things to see, including what will be our last chateau of this trip, a very imaginative botanic gardens and a moving memorial to the abolition of the slave trade (Nantes being a slave ship port). The highlight though, was the Ile de Machines, some extraordinary mechanical works of art, including a 'flying' heron which carried people in baskets under its wings, an enormous metal branch, populated with plants, which you could walk up and down, and best of all an elephant which strolled around the concourse spraying people with water. You had to be there!
