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Touring > Europe 2007 > France 2007
- Loire and the North
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Loire and the North
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After our early morning visit to the Martyrs village we headed north
mainly on straight D roads to Bellac and Montmorillon with the occasional
deviation due to "Route Barrée" signs. Passing through the
pretty cliffside village of Angles-sur-l'Anglin with a large ruined
chateau we turned north along the Creuse valley to Descartes where the
famous philosopher lived. After negotiating the narrow streets we drove on
busier main roads for a few miles to turn off towards the Loire Valley,
heading for an aire at Villaines-les-Rochers. We found a rather scruffy
service area and parking places in the town square. After a quick look at
the one star municipal campsite which was empty, had a height barrier and
was situated next to a metal working factory we decided to give this tired
looking town a miss despite its basket weaving museum, and continued to
Azay-le-Rideau, an attractive town on the River Indre.
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We found the aire outside the campsite but
it was full by late afternoon with some badly parked motorhomes of various
nationalities and the service borne was expensive at 5€ (after several
free nights!) so we booked into the adjacent municipal campsite for the
night so that we could spread out, do some chores and then relax! We found
a pitch away from a large UK Caravan Club rally contingent, but as we were
near the perimeter fence we had some stones thrown at us from the adjacent
track by some bored jeunesse during the evening, the first time we have
encountered this type of vandalism whilst abroad. We managed a stroll
around the smart town centre alongside the river with upmarket eating
places but gave the late evening performance of the Songe et Lumieres
presentation at the chateau a miss.
From there we drove east along the Loire Valley heading for Chaumont-sur-Loire
intending to visit the excellent garden festival we had been to a few
years ago, but it soon became more built-up around Montbazon and suburbs
of Tours. As it was so wet we decided to head north to Amboise then on D
roads to Chateau Renault, Montoire-s-le-Loir, Savigny sur Braye and more
small towns where the style of architecture changed to the typical
Normandie decorated brickwork as we moved north.
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Azay-le-Rideau
Chateau at Azay-le-Rideau
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After bypassing the industrial town of
Nogent le Routrou we were taken by our satnav along minor roads to
Bretoncelles a small neat town with an aire by the sports centre and
swimming pool. The aire with service borne(2€) was a neat hedged gravel
area with a chain across the entrance and a sign stating that "only
camping-caristes are authorised to remove it". The village centre was
a short stroll away where there was an interesting church, a few shops
which were shut (early closing day?) and some street art including a
statue to Django Rheinhardt the Jazz guitarist born in Belgium and lived
mostly in France
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Django statue Bretoncelles
Bretoncelles church
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Bretoncelles - distinctive Normandie style house
Brickwork detail
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After a peaceful night with one other
motorhome parked alongside we continued north through a series of towns
with distinctive tall church spires set in the flat agricultural
landscape. The first, La Ferté-Vidame had been built as a military town
with straight tree lined roads and when we arrived at Le Neubourg there
was a huge street market and every spare piece of land had cars parked so
it was impossible to stop. From there we took our preferred route crossing
the Seine at the Pont de Brotonne and turning east at Yvetot but avoiding
the Autoroute. Unfortunately many lorries also take the free road
(previously we have travelled along here on a Sunday when it was much
quieter). At St Saens we took a road across the pleasantly hilly and
wooded countryside to the valley of the Bray and reaching the coast
at Cayeux-sur-Mer an unimpressive small resort with beach huts and
motorhome parking banned and continued to St Valery-sur-Somme, a more
lively place on the estuary with a large aire (7€ for 24 hours + 1€
for water). This was a pleasant small resort with plenty of people
strolling around and a steam railway on the prom - unfenced of course -
this is France!
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Old Dept de L'Orne roadsign
Steam train at St Valery-sur-Somme
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On our last full day in France we drove
through more back roads to Crecy where there was a museum commemorating
the battle (Shakespeare's Henry V from my schooldays). Deciding to do a
last French supermarket topup shop we stopped at a Hyper-Champion in
Hesdin which was very crowded being market day again and definitely not
Hyper sized with a poor selection of wine and other goodies to take home.
We later spotted signs for an E L'eclerc supermarket at Lumbres near St
Omer but we just wanted to head to Gravelines to stay overnight in the
aire. Howeverbut had to call into another small supermarket with even less
of a selection of wines to get some 50cent coins to use the service point
at the caravan site on the other side of the town - by then the air was
getting as blue as the Flot Bleu (which was painted orange !?). It was
only a short drive from there to the ferry port the next morning and back
to traffic jams.
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2007
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