The vines are into second bunch stage and have not been pinched out. My vine at home will be showing some shoots. The view below shows the vines sloping down toward the Loire river.
We headed off along the Loire south bank there were several viewpoints at comanding high spots, there is parking provided to savour the spectacle. It was Sunday and hardly a soul about. Our next night stop was at Domain des Calcaires parked among the vines near Montjean.
May 5th. We are off to Angiers.
We need to go French soon regarding our gas cylinders. I had decided on the new fixed regulator system which hopefully will be standard for all Europe, only needing the connector for the country of use cylinder type.
I found a CampingCar dealer a small man and wife concern they were very helpful, Actually a Pilote dealer but they had spares compatible with Hymer so a new door catch was added to the list of purchases. In England such help was not provided by the Abbey dealer on my caravan under warranty. The poor chap spoke no English so had to put up with my French his wife was delighted to practice English with Sue.
He didn't have a simple fixed regulator but fitted one with an automatic change over, trying varoius cylinder sizes and combinations to find the best position to fix.
We took a quiet drive alongside the Loire north bank, stopping for lunch at Dagueniere where I took the opportunity of using the river wall to stand on to reach the door catch and replace it. We carried on to St Martin de La Place for an overnight stop on the banks of the Loire.
Here we met 'Marseilles' a lovely Frenchman from Brittany with his trailer and many 20ltr containers on the rear of his CampingCar, he was on the wine run. He gave us lots of tips on wine buying and tasting. Do not be afraid to walk away after a tasting without buying. Make it clear from the start how much you wish to buy, the producers will often want you to taste even if you only want one or two bottles. Do not pay more than 1 Euro per Litre.
He gave us many places to visit, one of these was Marseiles, "you will get there in the time you have, Marseilles oh Marseilles you must see Marseilles." I gave him his nickname he could have been Sauterne but Marsilles has stuck..
A Dutch van joined us. Hello he said, in fine English, phew, you speak English, I said, I thought I was going to have to try Dutch. Oh yes, we do. We conversed in English his, very very good, we need it for business he explained.
May 6th
We set of on the Chateaux run. Saumer, Chinon, Rigny-Ussey like a fairytale castle, then Azay-Rideux.
Further south is a very interesting area. The limestone hills were quarried for the stone to build the big houses, and Paris. The caves resulting from the quarrying were lived in by the workers. The troglodite village of Villain has houses and a church which are facias on caves. The homes are still dwelt in, some minimal, some posh. Many homes are part of a Co Operative which weaves cane and basket ware. The cane being grown locally.
Just south of here our next night stop was in Chinon, red wine, country, in a vineyard at Lille-Bouchard we tried a sample of wine in the cave from new bottle, the owner gave us the rest of the bottle, 'for your dinner Mssr.' We filled up our container with 2001 vintage, cost 2.8 Euro per ltr.
The sun went down over the vines. We slept in the yard within reach of 6000 ltrs of 2001 on tap.
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