Summer has finally arrived and we have moved to Camping Le Moulin Fort (47.3275, 1.0855 €19 ACSI) which is beautifully situated on the banks of the River Cher just a mile from the famous Chateau Chenonceau. Team Basil have bagged a prime spot literally on the banks of the river and it’s having a very soporific effect. Making matters worse, the campsite has a nice restaurant, which allows dogs. We’ve already eaten there once and we have booked a table for tonight.
The one slight annoyance on this site is a persistent Cuckoo. It’s been cuckooing day and night for more than three day and it’s getting on our nerves. I presumed Cuckoos only called during daylight but he was definitely making a racket at 3am last night, but I did hear a Nightingale too!
Truth be told we haven’t been completely idle. Our fantastic pitch has meant we’re quite a way from the toilet block so we’ve been building up the miles! Actually on our first day we walked down the lovely riverside footpath to Chateau Chenonceau. We could only view it from outside because the entrance is on the other side of the river. I think we have both visited the Chateau twice before so we’re not really bothered. Even though we are in a very touristy area it is very quiet during weekdays.
Yesterday we took Basil offsite to visit another Chateau. This time Villandry, which is known for its fantastic gardens. Skye was allowed in the gardens but not the Chateau, so Skye and I found a nice shady spot while Sarah looked round the Chateau. I actually had quite an entertaining time because I sat at an table adjacent to two retired American women, whose conversations about guns, their investments after Trump and being stalked, were highly entertaining.
The gardens are enormous and laid out in a French 16th Century style. You can judge its scale by the fact that it has over 1000 lime trees which take the 10 gardeners 3 months to pollard each year and the gardens contain over 30 kilometres of box hedging.
I really was spectacular and I think we were fortunate to visit just after Easter weekend because everything in the gardens were in tip top condition. One of the highlights was an enormous decorative vegetable garden and the red lettuces, for instance, we all in beautiful condition, whereas I know from my own experience that lettuces only remain perfect for a short time before they “bolt” to set seed.
We think we will stay here until Saturday, when the weather breaks, but we will probably do a day trip to Tours in the meantime, but otherwise trips to the toilet block will have to keep us fit!
I forgot to relate one story from our previous stop in Angouleme. I did say that I had a long walk to a boulangerie to get some bread. What I didn’t relate was the interaction between me and the woman behind the counter. As usual I ordered my bread in my best French, but every time I opened my mouth the shopkeeper pulled a face like I was scraping my nails down a blackboard! It’s things like this that make some people feel that French people are rude. But if you think about it, this bakery is in a non tourist area and probably gets very few foreign customers. By contrast in Britain, because English is now a world language, we regularly hear it being spoken in an enormous range of ways.
