One Perfect Day.......

... actually, we have had two perfect days!

Back to Friday, we followed the river Loire, the road runs along the top of a flood levee ...

We found a great spot to stop for the night but couldn't work out what this sign meant apart from camping cars =  motorhomes!  We tried various internet translations plus spoke to our fluent-French-speaking-boating buddies back in the UK and we concluded that  ... 'slags can park here, but don't milk it'! 

We are happy to be slags so we parked up for the night!

We went for a walk around the the village, its great to see the little 2CVs in every day use ...

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This is for John on NB Triskadeika !

Lunch was very nice ...

It was a very quiet and delightful little village ...

Not a bad spot eh? 

We were soon joined by another 'camping car' and by the end of the night there were seven of us moored up including a young couple from Jervis Bay in Australia!

Here we were ...

We went for a walk along the river bank and through the park ...

The levees are huge!  I will have to do some research to find out when they where built ...

It was a superb sunset and a precursor to the next day ...

So to today and what a lovely sight!

Our plan today was to drive to Saumur, which was only 20 mins along the flood levee road ...

We booked into a campsite in Saumur for a few reasons ...

1. We are now in the low season (from today), so it is cheap!.

2. We need to use their washing machines.

3. The forecast for the next couple of days was sunny and 32 degrees, so it would be nice to have the use of a pool (and showers!).  We havn't seen temperatures in the 30s since Spain last October. 

This is the Chateau in Sameur ....

The forecast was correct ...  after checking in and loading up the washing machines it was straight in the pool ...

Not a bad view from the pool ...

After a big dip in the pool, we headed back to the van, where we had left the dogs (in the shade).  The dogs get very excited whenever we return to them and today was no exception.  Bombo did his usual jumping around bit but misjudged and went flying off of the side of the chair ... only to start a high pitched squealing and wailing ... for what seemed like a long time!  Our instant thoughts were that he had broken his leg and thought of having to find a French vet on a Saturday etc ... but after a few minutes he was OK again, thank goodness!!  He must have pulled a muscle!

After a very cruisy afternoon we walked into the centre of Saumur tonight.  A hot air balloon, flew over the top of the campsite as we left ...

It's a 15 minute walk from the campsite to centre ville ...

The town looked superb across the Loire ...

This was our surreal pinch ourselves moment ... it just felt so special to be here ...

The town centre didn't disappoint.

No rain here thanks! 

We stopped in the town square for a beer or three!  Our waitress was French but had lived in Cleethorpes for three years and had the strangest accent - and she stuffed up the order so we had free beer!  

We stayed over there 'till quite late at night - and forgot about eating a we were just soaking up the ambience ...

As we walked back along the river, there was a little band playing outside a few of the riverside restaurants.  It was an amazing atmosphere. 

I took a couple of night shots on the way back to base ...

I'm writing this up at midnight and its still 28 degrees!!! Elaine is sitting outside reading her book as she says it is too hot to sleep ... but no complaints here, it's been a longtime coming!