The race of our trip is slowing a little so today I drove us first to the pretty little town (more of a village in size) of Candes Saint-Martin, just a few minutes from Saumur on the rivers edge. It was incredibly quiet but we walked the streets and had an excellent coffee before trying to get into a church with seemingly not front door and I was attacked twice by what I think must have been a horse fly!! We walked back to the car for protection before driving on to the town of Chinon less than an hour away.
I had expected a lot from the town having read up but in the event it was, dare I say, a little disappointing. We parked up (after passing through an extremely narrow passageway) and took a lift from the car park right up to the Fortress. We were given a funky iPad with complicated instructions to ‘enhance’ our visit and we were off. The views down onto the town of Chinon were very good and probably the best part of the trip. The actual fortress was mostly reconstructed with little original features left. The iPad thingy attempted to give us an impression of what the rooms would have looked like but it felt rather American themed.
We took the lift back to the old town with he plan of having a relaxing lunch in the town square. Nope. Apparently all luck everywhere stops being served at about 1.30pm - even the chairs were piled up so we couldn’t sit down. In the event we bought some crisps, sandwiches and apple juice from a little Carrefour and ate them sat in the car which was actually rather nice. Afterwards we walked to see a statue of Joan of Arc who was born in the town which was interesting but strangely situated in a car park. Having exhausted the offers of Chinon we realised the most impressive part was the view of the town back across the river!
Colin had spotted another interesting Château - Château Ussé - about half an hour away so we decided to head there for a look. The SatNav took us on an ‘interesting’ route of very narrow tracks barely tarmac before directing us to a road blocked by barriers. We then used Google maps on my phone to get us there successfully. It was a lovely place and even better when viewed across the river Indre - last crossed in the little town of d’Azay le Rideu. One ice cream before taking a toll road back to Saumur and stopping at an absolutely massive hypermarket - another D l’Clerc. Colin asked the butcher for two steaks (confusingly called ‘faux’ but apparently thats like a sirloin).
Tonights meal in was excellent. A starter of prawns and lemon, main course of large sliced tomatoes, fried onions and huge steaks (cooked perfectly blue for me) and finishing with a tarte tatin with cream, all was washed down with some red wine - trés bien!
