25 September – La Roque Saint-Christophe

We moved on today but stopped only just up the road to visit the site of a troglodyte fortress and village built some 55,000 years ago. It was quite amazing how a whole city had been able to survive on this cliff top platform.  The drive was a bit tight in places!

Some Info:

It is the largest troglodytic site in Europe.  It is 1 kilometre long and over 80 metres high. 

Model showing what the city would have looked like

This would have been the church

We then headed to Carsac-Aillac stopping first at the next village to fill up with water and use the services at the motorhome camping stop.

The parking area for motorhomes was in a shady setting under trees which was fine as it was such a hot day, a bit if shade was what we needed. It was a very popular place but we managed to find a spot side by side which gave us a seating area between the 2 vans.  Time for yet another barbecue!

24 September – Maison Forte de Reignac

It was a much cooler feel this morning but the sun was still shining which was the main thing.

After a bite to eat for lunch the boys went on a bike ride while we opted to visit Maison Forte de Reignac which was a small castle built into the side of the cliff. The entrance fee was €8 each but it was well worth it. We had an English information folder which was brilliant and explained the whole history of the site.

We walked through the rooms and went to the top storey where we had fantastic views across the countryside.  The inside of the rooms were really well decorated with original features.  There seemed to be a liking for stuffed animals!  Two of the original fireplaces were lit as it was so cool inside the building so there was a strong bonfire smell throughout.

There loads of house martins flying around us as they were landing on the cliff face for a rest – very difficult to capture in a photo.

The last room of the day was the torture chamber which was truly shocking! So glad we weren’t alive back in mediaeval times.

The icing on the cake today was meeting the local cat who was the friendliest cat ever and had the softest coat ever too! It was the same cat JT saw yesterday. He seemed to love sitting on me so Tineke took a few photos.  I could have easily catnapped this cat – he was so cute and cuddly!

Look at those paws!

The boys had a good ride and even took some photos!

23 September – Drive to Maison Forte de Reignac

We decided to make a detour to go and see Roque Saint-Christophe and stopped along the way at Maison Forte de Reignac which proved to be an excellent parking spot.  We only had sheep for neighbours on one side!

We had views of the cliffside building which looked very intriguing and we would probably explore the place tomorrow.  In the meantime, it was time to put up our feet and put the kettle on for a cup of tea, followed later on by our usual evening barbecue!

 

22 September – Brantôme

We decided to head off today towards Brantôme which had a paying aire but we thought visiting the town warranted the cost.  We drove around 300 km to get there and on the way stopped at Auchan to fill up our gas bottles.

The place looked wonderful as we drove in. We paid using a credit/debit card and it cost us €7.60 to stay the night.  It was a popular aire and even though there was spaces for 40 vans there were hardly any spaces left. We managed to get 2 spaces next to each other.

I was keen to go into the town so we soon walked into town. We were not disappointed  – the place was lovely. There was even a wedding photo shoot going on the bridge.

When crossing the bridge we were lucky enough to spot 4 otters in the river – you can just about see one in the photo.

 

 

 

There were a whole load of bikers on their Harley Davidsons which looked pretty impressive.

 

 

 

 

We did think about going out to eat but it seemed like an expensive place to eat out. So instead we headed back to the van where I cooked dinner for us all which we had inside the van for a change.

21 September – Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet

We had some rain this morning – well just a little bit – and the weather was at least 10°C cooler!  I had a look on the internet and found an excellent website on the town which had lots of information on its history.  By the time we had our lunch the weather had cleared so we went for a walk around the town.

It was a lovely town and the main attraction was the château which was currently used as a hotel although it didn’t look particularly open to us.

We had our dinner inside as it was too cold really to side outside.  I even put on an extra duvet on the bed tonight as the temperature went down to 9°C.

20 September – Lac du Cébron and Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet

We initially thought we would just move to the next village where we had seen a place to park at a mushroom growing place.  The village itself didn’t look that brilliant and the parking place was non existent.  So it was on to Plan B which was for us to travel further south to the lake near Saint-Loup -sur-Thouet, Lac du Cébron.

First at Thouars we did a petrol stop and Lidl shop.

We parked up our vans and got our chairs out in the reclined position! I went to explore and found a notice saying no parking was allowed so we packed up and headed to the aire in Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet as we didn’t fancy getting moved on in the middle of the night.

 

The aire in Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet was lovely with plenty of space for us to park up next to each other with loads of room between us for a BBQ.

So of course we had a barbecue that evening and we all ate rather a lot including some fresh sardines which managed to upset our stomachs – not so good!

19 September – Thouars

In the morning we went for a quick stroll around the lake which was right next to where we were parked.  It looked like a popular place to go fishing.

Today’s plan was to follow the Thouars á Vélo cycle route all the way to Thouars. It was about 19km cycle ride and the route was great as we were mostly cycling along the river Thouet on small country lanes or cycle only tracks.

Once we reached Thouars we cycled up a steep road which took us into the centre of the town. Once again we got a map of the town from the Tourist Office but we only did a very quick tour of the town. The castle there was used as a school so we couldn’t go inside. There some lovely views across the town as the castle sits high up and overlooks the river going around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon it was time to head back to our vans to chill and then have a spot of dinner under the stars. Funnily enough we were the only people who seemed to be eating outside in the dark!

18 September -Montreuil-Bellay

Yet another leisurely morning! As the weather was so warm we didn’t cycle to Montreuil-Bellay until just after lunch. This time we followed the cycle signs of the Thouet à Vélo as we were now foĺlowing the river Thouet which leads into the Loire.

It was a relatively short cycle ride through the fields and we parked our bikes by the tourist office where we were given a map of the town which had a scenic route marked out which we followed of course.

The town was very lovely, probably one of the prettiest ones we’ve seen so far. The château itself was stunning.  Unfortunately today was the only day it was closed to visitors – typical!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along our walk we found a wallet so did our good deed fir the day and took it to the tourist office where the lady there was going to contact the police. Hopefully it would soon be returned to its rightful owner.

We then cycled to the SuperU supermarket and bought a few basics like bread and milk. Then it was time to cycle back to our vans for another stress free evening.

 

Tineke scrumping some sweetcorn!

The sweetcorn from the field was as hard as rock and was no good to eat.  It was obviously not for human consumption!  Luckily I had some sweetcorn in the fridge which we used on our barbecue – the best thing ever!

17 September – Hot, hot, hot at Saint-Martin-de-Sanzay

We moved on today as we needed to empty our waste and refill our water tanks.  We had certainly enjoyed our stay here in Turquant.  We had earmarked a few possible stops the first being at Le Coudray-Macouard where there were lots of trees to park under but there was nowhere to empty our toilette cassettes and the water just dribbled out of the tap which would have meant filling up our vans would have taken hours!  Not so good!

We moved on to the next place at Montreuil-Bellay where there was a brand new aire but for some reason no water came out of the tap so we decided to head off for parking spot No 3 which was near a small lake at Saint-Martin-de-Sanzay.   We found a perfect shady spot where we could spread out.  This aire had the added bonus of free electricity which meant we were able to boost our batteries.

It was literally too hot to do anything as it was 34°C inside the van and 33°C outside, so we took it easy in the shade.  Paul and Tineke used their electric hot plate which was great for dinner.

16 September – Saumur

From our lovely parking spot at Turquant we followed the Loire à Vélo route to Saumur which was only about 11 km away.  We had a lovely bike ride along the Loire with stunning views across the river.

We stopped along the way at a vineyard where we saw the huge machine they used for collecting the grapes.  The machine shakes the grapes off the vines.

 

Free tasting of paté and rillettes

 

 

Soon we had views of the chateau which was high on the hill.  There was an enormous queue to go in the castle to we gave up the idea of going inside.  Instead we strolled around the castle grounds after first having our picnic.

The walk into the town centre was downhill all the way and we passed many interesting buildings and sights, including an amazing trike!

 

 

 

The walk back was a bit more strenuous but once back at the top we had a lovely ride back to the vans.

Yet another barbecue night with a lovely sunset!