So, after an early night, we woke up well rested and looked out to see a slightly damp Loire Valley… not heavy rain, just a bit of light drizzle.  It soon brightened up, and Stew put his PE kit on to go out for a run and I set about making a coffee.

What happened next was disastrous for both of us, in a first world problems sort of a way! So… I remembered that I had thrown the kettle out at the end of last years holiday, and this rendered the adamsons kettle less…. I improvised and boiled a pan of water and hung my head in shame at the terrible planning… meanwhile Stews run took a sinister turn when the muck spreader started…. it was a race to the end of the field! He arrived back sweaty with spots of pooh all over him traumatised by the whole situation.

We recovered, and met our neighbours… who have the most awesome camp kitchen! I’ve included the pictures as I do think that the Lealans need to see it!

We had decided to try out my back on a long bike ride… and loaded up the bikes, smothered us in suncream and headed off down the huge hill to find the town.  Directly out the site is a huge hill down to the river, and along the river is a cycle path, and it links into the Loire cycle network, though further investigation would have been good as we ended up a bit lost!  We had a pit stop at Decathlon to buy the children drink bottles and new cycle hats as their heads have grown!

We cycled on through the city and followed a sign to the castle, which was up particularly brutal hill… but we were rewarded with a spectacular view and a well positioned restaurant for lunch.  Hargreaves…. Stew wants you to know that he had a croque monsieur and is pleased to report that he enjoyed it!  Whilst we were sitting eating our lunch the couple beside us started chatting to us and it turned out that they are the Hargraves neighbours in West end… and that they had been looking after their chickens the week before! 

After lunch we headed off back down the hill, and had a look through the town centre… another classic french town with beautiful maintained buildings…. back past the military part of town, past the dancing horses and then on to our next stop, the wine caves of Saumur… sadly we were half an hour too late for the tour, but the building itself was beautiful, and I would love to return.

Back for swimming and a lovely evening with our neighbours…. who are going to a campsite we are at later in the hols too! 

Loving French France and all it offers!