We have made it to the river Loire and have seen our first chateau!  We started this trip about a week ago, making our way slowly via St Omer, Epernay, Chablis and Nevers.  Now we are at Gien, on a camp-site looking out over the Loire - I think there may be a few of those along the way.

We have been to Epernay before, but stopped there again to see the exceptional son et lumiere that they project onto one of the champagne houses after dark.  Epernay is totally about champagne - so what's not to like - and in a very pretty setting, but the town centre looks a bit run down and short of fizz.  Anyway, it is a useful stopover on the way south.

From there we drove on through the Chablis region, and stopped overnight at a France Passion site where we were treated to a wine tasting at 3 in the afternoon, as the owner was going out.  He gave us half a bottle as a welcome present and we bought two more bottles as his wine was so delicious and spent a quiet night parked among the vines.

We hit the Loire at Nevers, an interesting town big enough to have a cathedral and a ducal palace.  The cathedral has amazingly colourful modern stained glass, the most recent being fitted in the 1990s.  We walked miles round the town - it has two walking routes for tourists marked out with blue lines painted on the pavement, with occasional notice boards at points of interest - much easier that following a map.  The whole of this area is famous for pottery and highly decorated faience ware, hugely expensive, so no Christmas present ideas there!

Dukes Palace at Nevers

So we are continuing along the Loire river, very wide and shallow at the moment.  Briare made a good visit, a very pretty town with a church decorated inside and out with mosaic panels.  Sounds awful, but the panels were lovely and set out in very well thought out design.  The main attraction in Briare though, is a section of canal over 600 metres long which is carried over the river Loire on a bridge.  Difficult to describe but very impressive.

 

Pont du canal at Briare

Yesterday we went for a long cycle ride to Sully sure Loire and our first chateau.  We rode for 56 km or 35 miles, further than we have been for years on the bikes, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  and the chateau was very impressive too.

Chateau Sully sure Loire

River Loire at Gien