Our Loire Experience

Due to a generous birthday gift ant and i headed off to the Loire Valley for a week with the dogs, here is a brief outline of what we did:

Saturday; We headed off about ten thirty, as soon as the man fitting our new gates arrived and let us out of the garden. The drive down was relatively stress free and the roads were quiet, driving on the motorways here is very boring due to the lack of anything to see or do apart from drive. We arrived just after four, found the place really easily, we got out of the car and had a look around, found the keys and let ourselves in, the dogs explored the garden, Banjo fell in to the mill stream and i had to fish her out, typical!! The interior was very quaint and attractive, it had every thing we would need for the week, we took a load of photos before our bits were unloaded so it would look a little tidier. The owner arrived to welcome us and sort anything out we had issues with, she was really nice and stayed for a coffee and chatted to us for a good while. After our period of settling in i set too to make some bread, then we got changed into our pj's and had a night of champagne and pizza, chat and music, a most enjoyable day.
Sun; We headed over to a local town called Sille le Guillame where we had read there was a brocant, it was quite a decent size and we pottered about with the dogs, it was very similar to the ones we have here, except there was no food tent. We had a sandwich each as a kind of brunch, bought a book, Far Country by Neville Shute, then had a look around the town, quite a beautiful place with an impressive early Chateau. We headed back to the house before lunch and decided we would take the dogs a walk and have a picnic, originally this was envisaged as a ten km walk but turned out being more like 18, so by the time we got back we were both a bit done in, but we had enjoyed it. Set too making dinner, a pork stew and we had another evening of wine with games, ant almost won a game of scrabble, he is getting better at it and really gave me a run for my money but i just held on to my unbeaten champion title.
Monday; We had a day trip out to Le Mans, quite a big place famous for its 24 hour race, it was quite a beauty, the old town was very picturesque with many half timbered buildings in good condition, the cathedral was also quite a good example of a transitional Gothic building with a fine multi chapeled apse sporting many graceful flying buttresses. We had a good wander around with the dogs, from old to 19th century and beyond. After a good mornings walking we headed back to the house, with a trip to a supermarket on the way, and spent the afternoon with our noses in books. Ant cooked fish, chips and mushy peas for dinner then we had another games night, a game of Monopoly and then a Master quiz championship.
Tuesday; A two city day, we headed in the direction of Alençon but went straight through and went to Sées, a very pretty town with a very fine cathedral all in an early Gothic period, very fine features inside. We went to a small sandwich place for lunch and i had one of the best cheeseburgers i have had in ages, the dogs behaved themselves well, then we had a good wander around the town, a very pretty place. We headed back and stopped off in Alençon on the way back, again a very fine place, the birth place of St. Terese, a very popular french saint from the last century, naturally there was a shrine to her in the church, her bones however were doing a tour of England at the time so the shrine was bare. The town again was a beautiful mix of old and new with some very pretty 17th century buildings mixed in with some fine later ones, including a fantastic round market building. On return i set too on the dinner then relaxed with my book, then we had another evening of food, wine and games.
Wednesday; We woke to a grey rainy day, which was a bit of a shame as the weather had been good up till then, we could not think what to do with ourselves, i had finished my book and felt disinclined to start another, in the end ant suggested we go to a supermarket and see if we could find some dvds to watch, we did, and had to drive all the way to Le Mans to find anything. We bought four dvds and a jigsaw with Asterix the Gaul and the entire village on it, this was a bit of a sweetener for me to stop me grumbling. When we got back we set to on the jigsaw, little knowing it would take most of that evening and the whole of the next day, but it was good fun. We settled down to dinner in front of the dvd of Dungeons and Dragons, which was appalling, though Ant said he had enjoyed it!
Thursday; We spent the entire day working on the jigsaw, only pausing momentarily to eat, it was a bit obsessive but we almost finished it, only to find we were missing a pair of trousers, which Ant found calamitous. We had a very poor dinner as we had planned a Tuna Pasta Bake but there was no tin opener so i had to improvise with hot dogs, very unpleasant.
Friday; We decided to head home on Friday as the weather had taken a turn for the worst and the novelty of having no modern day conveniences had worn off a little, so we packed up and cleaned up and headed home. The return trip was far more enjoyable as we took the normal road home, passing through pretty villages and plenty to see, we got home by four in the afternoon and set too unpacking and settling back in to our home.