We thought we would try and find a goat farm to stay on as we have got a bit of a taste for goats cheese since we have been in France and there are so many varieties.   After leaving Annecy we went from blue skies to torrential rain, to hail and then back to blue skies again – looking on the positive side Mika got a bit of a wash which we had been promising her for a week or so… .

The farm was situated in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain – I guess if I had thought about it that would have been where we would look for goats – and they had approximately 100 females and three lucky males 🙂

The farm is part of the ‘France Passion’ so in exchange for staying on their land we felt that it was only fair to sample some of the produce ….. Saucisson a la chevre (that is charcuterie sausage to the english), Goats Cheese Brick (Demi Sec), Honey beer (ok, that had nothing to do with goats but looked interesting) and goats milk yogurt…..this is turning out to be quite an expensive alternative to campsites…. but they were all lovely.

We learnt probably more than the average person wants to know about goats – they lactate for about 8 months of the year producing on average 2 litres of goats milk a day, on average they have about 6 or 7 years of ‘milking’ life and the gestation period is 5 months….. As part of the cheese making process there is a very rich/acidic bi-product which is produced (I guess the equivelant of whey) which rather than wasting, they use to raise a handful of pigs with – so no waste, everything on the farm was efficiently planned and managed.

It was an interesting (and tasty) stop well worth the trip, all we have to do now is find a place that produces blue goats cheese as we have only found it a couple of times but it is lovely.

Camping au couer du lac – 16 euros per night inclusive

We came through Annecy 9 years ago when we briefly thought about buying a small hotel/chalet in France and always said that we would come back as it was so beautiful. The journey from Dijon was a long one, but as the weather was about to change and parts of southern France were already suffering the consequences following torrential rain we thought it would be best to not to cross the mountains with poor weather and tackled it head on.

The journey wasn’t that bad, the weather stayed dry most of the way and the roads twisted through the mountains providing us with some beautiful views as well as tired arms 🙂 Unfortunately as the journey took slightly longer than expected we arrived into Annecy at rush hour and with bumper to bumper traffic (the first we have seen since we arrived in France back in March) someone decided to take a closer look at our back bumper and gave us a nudge up the backside. Thankfully the damage looks minimal with just a slight crack to the bumper near the number plate… but not really the welcome we had planned for.

Oddly, as it is such a beautiful place, many of the campsites in Annecy are only open until mid-September we managed to find one which had one more week before it shuts its doors and not surprisingly, it was busy.

We woke up to sunshine and as we were right on the side of the lake, I went for a run and Keith a cycle to take in some of  the stunning scenery. As we got back to the motorhome the skies opened and it pretty much stayed that way until after lunch. The rain didn’t stop us from walking into Annecy and visiting the rather wet market to stock up on fruit and vegetables, but once it cleared up we got a better view of the town itself which is beautiful and we sat and ate lunch looking over the lake…..

The old town is built on canals which feed into the lake and it has lots of windy cobbled streets with boutique type shops and it even has a chateau 🙂

After a heavy night of rain we set off on a cycle ride around the lake on Saturday morning which is 42km and a little hilly in parts 🙂 Part way round we stopped at a small town which was hosting a Red Bull Extreme sports triathlon type competition which appeared to include parascending from the top of the mountain to land on a floating platform in the lake as well as mountain biking and probably several other sports which we didn’t say to see…. It was quite spectacular though.

Anyone looking for an tranquil place to go but with the options of lots of outdoor sports – walking, climbing, cycling, kayaaking, Ski-ing, etc …. Annecy is the place…. I would happily live here 🙂

Camping Du Lac Kir (11,30 euros per night exc. electricity)

From Sancerre we travelled through the rolling hills passing some beautiful villages until we got to Dijon. Just meters from the campsite we came to a halt with a 3m bridge…… Something that most people wouldn’t think about, but when your motorhome is 3.1m high and you don’t really fancy turning it into a convertible an inch makes all the difference :). However, after much deliberation and persuasion by the campsite managers that it is actually 3.5m we progressed through without a problem. The campsite is about 2.5km outside Dijon and not surprisingly considering its name, on the edge of a lake with really nice spacious pitches.

We set out to explore Dijon on foot and although it is not particular picturesque it has a lovely old town and lots of ornate churches in very different styles as well as an exhibition of Francois Rude who created some of the most incredible sculptures that you may have seen in famous locations around France including the following which is located at the Arc du Triumph http://mba.dijon.fr/musee/musee-rude

We totalled up our distances today and since we left Bagnoles De L’Orne we have covered just over 1000 miles in the motorhome and 756.5 kms on the bike/walking 🙂

We left the campsite at Orleans at lunch time and headed towards Sancerre to find another ‘France Passion’ place to stay. As some of you (the white wine lovers at least) will know, Sancerre is rolling hills covered with vine. We are just under two weeks from the ‘vindanges’ which is when they cut the crop and start the wine making process, so we thought we would try and find out more about the wines from the region and selected an independent vineyard from the book to stop for the night at.

The place we had chosen was called Domain Auchere which is located at the end of a little village called Bue about 10km outside Sancerre. As we couldn’t find anyone in, we settled down with a cup of tea but were soon interrupted by ‘Dad’ who owned the house across the road, used to own the family vinyards and evidently liked a glass or two :).  He invited us to have a glass of wine with him … which we could hardly refuse despite it being 3pm and explained to us a little about his family and the vineyard. He has passed the majority of the vineyard to his two sons, one on either side of the road, who each make approximately 80,000 bottles of wine a year.

Later on we met the owner of the vineyard who explained that white wine makes up 80% of their crop and that they export approximately 60% of the white wine to the rest of Europe keeping the rest to sell within France. Only 20% of each crop is red and generally it is kept locally or for the Parisiennes.  Having tasted it, if you do find any Sancere red on the shelves I definately recommend trying it.

For those of you who didn’t know … and wanted to, White wine is made by pressing the white grapes, rose is also made by pressing the red grapes, and red wine is a much longer distillation process (of approximately 10 days in this case) which draws the colour out of the red grapes. The whole process from cutting the grapes off of the vine through to being ready to send to market takes approximately 3 months, and it isn’t until the 3 month point that they really know if it is a good crop or not.

We bought a couple of bottles of red to take with us and settled into a very peaceful night surrounded by vine (photo to follow)

When we left the vineyard in the morning we headed back towards Sancerre to have a look around. Just before we turned off the main road the night before you could see the town of Sancerre mounted on a hill just across the valley – I wish I had taken a photo as it looked like it was just floating above the cloud. Unfortunately in the morning it was hazy and although beautiful… not to the lens.

Whilst doing some research into places to stay in France we came across a book called ‘France Passion’ which supposedly details several farms, vinyards, restaurants and other local independent producers who invite people with mortorhomes to come and stay free of charge in exchange for buying some of their produce or eating with them.  We only found out about the book a couple of weeks ago and as we don’t have a mailing address, the nearest stockest was in Tours so we went and bought the guide on Friday morning as we left.

Keith browsed through the guide whilst I drove to Blois where we stopped for lunch and a walk around.  Blois is centered around its Chateau which, from the outside doesn’t really look that impressive (it is all relative don’t forget)…

However, when we walked around the other side and looked into the courtyard the detail in the stonework is probably the most intricate we have seen yet with the most beautiful staircase spiralling up from the courtyard.  Unfortunately they had blocked most of the area of so that you couldn’t take photos and as we didn’t go in I will have to leave you to have a look on the internet 🙂  http://www.chateaudeblois.fr/?lang=en The rest of Blois was attractive but not really much else to do.

With the ‘France Passion’ book in hand we headed towards Orleans to try out our first farm stay…. en route we passed through the Chambord Estate …. a fine example of French Rennaisance architecture…..

Now if we were wise and read the detailed description we would have realised what we were letting ourselves in for.  The farm sold its fruit and vegetables, local goats cheese and wines as well as home made cakes, breads, jams and pate.  It also provided an evening meal should we have wanted to partake using all the produce from the farm – mostly focussing around chicken and duck.

As we had already got food for the evening we stocked up on lots of local produce and settled in for the evening to the sound of ducks quacking and cockerals…erm, doing their thing 🙂

The French cockerals are early risers… 4am I think he started.  I wouldn’t have minded but I think he was still up at 22:30… obviously knew he had guests.  So, note to self the concept of ‘France Passion’ is great and the hosts were really friendly … next time choose something slightly quieter like a vinyard.

After buying a bit more fruit and veg we set off into Orleans to a Municipal campsite (the france passion places generally only allow you to stay the night).

Camping Municipal Oliviet (16 euros per night without electricity) is roughly 6km outside Orleans, very tranquil, eco friendly and with cycle paths into the centre and along the Loire.  It is lovely, we would definately come back here – but recommend booking or arriving early if you want a space.

We ventured into Orleans to go to the farmers market and then again later to walk around the city.  It has the same kind of feel as Nantes, probably because it is a university town combined with a fairly large old town, Keith and I both liked it a lot.  The cathedral is enormous and beautiful and whilst we were walking around Orleans they had at least two weddings, so they obviously get good use of it!

Sunday morning we did another loop of the Loire heading along the north side of the river east for about 30km to the first bridge and then back on the other side.  There is something about the Loire, Keith and I both think it is the most attractive river we have seen.  It is probably something to do with the fact that it isn’t very deep so there are lots of sand banks / islands which provide a fantastic mixture of textures.

Camping Acacias – (16 euros per night inclusive of electricity)

Well, it was going to happen at some point – at least we didn’t go from 5 star luxury to 0 Star …. This one is about a 3 Star and to be fair the facilities are clean and the water is hot …. We have just been spoilt 🙂 and it didn’t help that the weather has turned a little and the trees were chucking acorns at us from a great height… we are just picky!

We left Saumur on Wednesday morning and headed towards Chateau Azay Le Rideau to take in a bit more of the Chateau scene.

The chateau is pristine and worth a visit if you are in the area. However, if you are only going to visit one chateau whilst in the Loire, you must go and see Chateau Chenonceaux.  Unfortunately we saw the latter the day after the former and however lovely the former was, the latter is spectacular both inside and out.

Thursday was another day of cycling, in the morning over to Chateau Chenonceaux (as below)

and then across to Amboise and back to Tours along the Loire – 90km round trip. We didn’t stop in Amboise, but from the quick cycle through it looked like a beautiful town with yet another chateau – they are quite common – on the edge of the Loire. We arrived in Tours late afternoon and parked the bikes up in front of the cathedral.  Tours is a larger more industrial town, but it has an attractive old town (along with another chateau). which was worth a wander around.

We are now however Chateau’d out ….. I wouldn’t mind but we are only half way across the Loire valley.  Worse still we are leaving red wine country and entering white wine territory … what to do ??

Camping Lac de Maine – 16.55 euros each night all inclusive

Keith found this lovely campsite on the edge of a lake and the Loire in the ACSI book, which has more than returned the money we paid for it now.  Clean, tidy and friendly situated 5km outside Angers which is a large, but pretty town on the Loire.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and wondered into Angers to have a look around.  It has a ‘real’ Chateau ….. not quite sure how they differentiate between a Chateau used for protecting the town and the pretty ones that the rich people used to live in … but this one was quite impressive and still mostly intact.

There are two parts to the town, the newer, which still contains older buildings but is predominantly a shopping area, and the old, which is solely residential now and has no access for vehicles … very pretty.

When we got back to the campsite Mika’s twin sister was parked opposite her.  She was owned my an Austrian couple who were as enthusiastic as we were to see the differences between the two motorhomes despite the fact that we speak no Austrian and they spoke no/very little English. 

Saturday morning we popped into the market to stock up on fruit and veg and then decided to try and explore the region and its vinyards on bike.  90km later we had definately done some exploring – the most beautiful place (An undeveloped Richmond on Thames) was a village 5km along the Loire called Bouchemaine where there are a handful of bars and restaurants on the river front.  Our ‘tour’ took us along the Loire to Chalonnes-sur-Loire and then down towards Thouarce then up to Brissac-Quince (which has a beautiful ‘posh’ Chateau), on to Les Ponts de Ce and then back to the campsite.

Somehow or t’other we missed out on the ‘degustacion’ as many of the tasting rooms were closed.  We made up for it with a couple of glasses of wine with our dinner and a catch up with some neighbours from near Cork.

Nantes Camping – 16.50 euros all inclusive

Wow what a campsite – this one is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. It is a municipal 5 star eco friendly site open all year round situated 5km outside Nantes by the University.

Nantes is a beautiful city which is buzzing as it has a huge university. After arriving we wondered into town to have a look round and it is the kind of place that you could go from café to café, via a patisserie and just people watch. As with La Rochelle everything is pristine, although slightly more normal, with shops that you wouldn’t mind going into and having a look around … oh and toilets that you don’t have to pay for 🙂

Today we cycled over to Trentmoult which is a small old village on the other side of the river and then afterwards on to see the Ile de Machines … http://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/en/

Dave and Nicky suggested that we came and had a look and we weren’t disappointed. If you are interested in mechanics or engineering or even just animals you would be amazed by the skill that has gone into creating the ‘machines’ that you can touch, move and ride on 🙂

We spent nearly two hours looking at the mechanics in the gallery, which is where they have a giant ant which takes 5 people to move, a heron which can take 4 passengers, a plane and a concept mini tree world amongst other things – all built out of wood and metal with the mechanics to move like the animals/plants. Everything is child (and inquisitive adult) friendly and they invite you to sit on the animals and operate them as they move around.

We then moved outside to ride the elephant…..

Weighing in at 48.4 tonnes the elephant is 12m tall, 21m long and moves at a maximum of 3km an hour. It would be quite a site if you were driving through Nantes and had no idea of its existence as it is almost pre-historic ….although I am not quite sure that elephants have such long eyelashes.

I was a little over zealous with my camera and had to cut the 78 photos down to 37 ….. but the tree is due to be completed by 2018 and so far there is only one branch on display …. definately worth a trip back

After a bit more of a wander around the centre and up to the top of the Commerce tower which has fantastic views over Nantes we headed back at the campsite for a bar b q and some inside info on Italy from our new neighbours from Northern Ireland.

Au Petit Port De L’houmeau –  – 16,54 euro per night inclusive of electricity.

Although there are a couple of campsites in the centre of La Rochelle we decided to opt for something a little further out hoping that it would be a little more tranquil. As the schools have started to go back and low season has officially started we assumed that there wouldn’t be any problem finding a space we were however lucky as when we arrived there were only two left. It is a nice campsite with a mixture of posh wooden chalets and pitches for tents and motorhomes and for people like us who are happy to jump on a bike ideally placed.

1/9 Île de Ré

Situated just off the coast from La Rochelle connected by a pretty impressive 3km bridge is the Île de Ré, a hidden gem with beautiful beaches and beautifully preserved villages. We looked at the map on Sunday night and decided to bite the bullet and cycle all the way to the lighthouse at the end. The route on the way passed through some beautiful little villages as well as fields full of grapes, and salt and oyster farms.

On the way back whilst wiggling round the coast trying not to take out any cyclists (or pedestrians come to think of it as there were quite a lot) we got distracted by what looked like a castle, which upon further investigation was Saint Martin de Re which is a walled cathedral city containing a vibrant town with a rather plush port – all of the buildings maintained to a really high level …. I know I shouldn’t say it, but you certainly wouldn’t expect to see anything as pristine as this in France… not a tumbling down building in site 🙂

After rattling the bones on the cobbled streets of Saint Martin de Re we continued on to La Flotte which was equally as beautiful, slightly smaller and more personal. We stopped for an ‘Artisanal’ (I think that is supposed to be ‘home made’) Ice cream and soaked up the atmosphere whilst people watching.

The journey home was via a part reconstructed Abbey leading to the days total cycling distance of 84km….. phew, lovely day but I definitely have a couple of sore bits 😦

2/9 – La Rochelle

With sandwiches in hand we set off on the bikes again to explore La Rochelle. The campsite is about 6km outside La Rochelle so it was an easy journey in and we managed to chain the bikes up near the seafront and set off on foot to explore.

There is obviously something about this part of France as, like yesterday on the Île de Ré everything was immaculate – I know it helps when there is a bit of sunshine, but all the buildings in the city are built in a white stone which looks stunning against the blue skies. La Rochelle is obviously a touristy city as there is every possible shop you can think of from the UK high streets, from Kookai to Kickers and there is a price to pay …. My eyes happened to be wondering in a patisserie window and a Millefeuille was 4.50 euros ….. Bagnoles De L’Orne count yourself lucky at 1.90 euros.

Definitely worth a trip, but quite glad we made some sarnies before we went!

La Rochelle8

As we got closer to the Loire valley the countryside started to change from fields of corn to fields containing vine after vine of grape… both red and white. We couldn’t have timed our visit better as looking at the size of the grapes we may still be in the region for harvesting which I understand is a bit of an event.

As you rarely get the opportunity to visit friends whilst away we took a slight detour from our planned route and popped in to see Dave and Nicky in Brem-Sur-Mer and were lucky enough to be shown around the area and can only say that we were thoroughly looked after for four days…. Quite a treat!

 The weather was kind to us and we managed to take advantage of one of the regions’ fantastic cycle routes, cycling along the coast to la Chaume (across the estuary from Le Sable D’Olonne) with Dave, we walked along the local beaches as whilst also taking in some of the local cafes, markets and playing some tennis 🙂

 We were spoilt by Nicky’s wonderful cooking and the families hospitality and were also introduced to some lovely local sparkling red wine and a fantastic restaurant on Saturday night where Keith Dave and Nicky all had Sardines three different ways…… tasty and definitely interesting!

Hopefully they enjoyed the time as much as we did and feel as relaxed as we do coming away from their house….although we have to apologies for the hole we left in the driveway when Keith spun the wheels whilst trying to reverse off 😦

We look forward to coming back and seeing more of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in the future as we only got a little taste and hope the driveway is big (and possibly hard) enough – we could quite see ourselves living there 🙂