July update

At the end of June, my son and his wife arrived to visit. They were here just in time to see the Tour de France come through Guemene. On the 7th July we waited by the bridge and were really surprised to see the extent of the entourage that precedes the actual race. Incredible looking cars and floats entertained us for a couple of hours until the cyclists zipped past in seconds and it was all over.

At the end of July we decided to have a mini break and drove to Amboise, I'd booked a B&B in the town thinking that it would be lovely to be able to stroll around in the evening, have a meal and not worry about an extra glass of wine and driving back to some place in the sticks. The weather was fantastic, and we were charmed by the tiny little chambre d'hote wedged between two other building opposite the castle walls. Perfect we thought. After looking around Amboise castle (I had no idea that Leonardo da Avinci was buried there), I was even more delighted to find that there was an evening market being set up. Our room was on the 1st floor seen here with the windows open. The market was in the road between us and the castle walls, we thoroughly enjoyed it and had our evening meal al fresco at one of the stalls.

After a stroll along the Loire we decided that in order to get an early start to see Chaumont-sur-loire the next day, it was time to go to bed and sleep. Famous last words - what hadn't occured to either of us is that being so central had a price to pay - the stall holders started packing up at midnight, enjoyed a van door slamming competition until at least 1.30am and no sooner had I started dozing off, some lovely lads decided to have a street party. This was at top volume with singing, shouting and trumpet playing until 3am. By this time Ian had stomped off with the duvet and curled up on the bathroom floor where he slept all night. I suffered on, and finally managed to get to sleep but (you couldn't make it up) was very cruelly and rudely awakened at 6.30am by a pressurised steam cleaning van going up and down outside. It stopped at 9am by which time I'd given up and got up. The B&B owner assured us that the next night would be 'tres tranquil' and people at Chaumont must have thought us very odd as we napped at regular intervals under every available tree. It's a wonderful place and the reason we picked it to visit was the annual international garden festival: www.domaine-chaumont.fr I have to say though that it's probably better to go as soon as the gardens open as by the end of July they were looking very past their best. I don't think they get much TLC once they're put in which is a great pity. While in the gift shop, Ian met a neighbour of his from Soulvache which just shows what a small world it really is. Not only that but they were also staying near Amboise and had booked to see the evening sound and light show that day just as we had. In fact we were only a row away from each other. Somehow we managed to stay awake long enough to have a lovely meal and see the show. It was lovely, a historical re-enactment of the chateaux's past with period costume and music. Of course it wasn't quite 'tres tranquil' as we heard people's goodbyes until nearly 1am after we returned to our B&B and guess what....... they hadn'd quite finished cleaning the street after the market so were back at 6.30 the next morning. As the weather was still lovely, we decided to go to nearby Chenonceau on the way home, www.chenonceau.com and really enjoyed it there. A beautiful place with so much history, however we didn't really do it justice as we were so tired by then and the weather had turned saultry and close. In fact we had the mother of all rain storms hit us on the motorway just outside Angers and luckily we were near a turnoff so we parked up and waited for it to pass. Even though the visibility was dreadful, we could still hear people driving past like lunatics. As mother always said "drive like lightening, crash like thunder" wise woman.

We returned in one piece in time to bid farewell to some lovely Irish guests who had booked la glycine for the whole of July no less, I could do with bookings like that next year - hint hint.