Leaving La Fleche behind us and kean to expand our knowledge of the French wine, we stopped off at Domaine Drusse which is a new grape variety and area for us, mainly focussing on ‘Bourgeuil’. David and his wife have a biological vinyard with a huge range of wines – varying in depth and flavour profile. The Vinyard is also a site for the Troglodytic caves which you can explore, although we didn’t take advantage this time. We did however purchase some wine, and also pop back into the town on Saturday having realised it was market day… any excuse to stock up on local produce

It was then a short drive to get to Villandry, where we planned to stay for a few nights to explore the Chateaux on the Loire as we haven’t been this way for a while…. also a good place to get on the bikes as I am currently sporting an injury stopping me from walking, let alone running…. very frustrating!

Villandry is a small village based around Chateau which has beautiful gardens, so although a grey and misty day, we opted to have a hobble around the gardens which were full of shape, colour and texture – amazingly beautiful seasonal veg!

With the fog and mist still hanging low, although it was Sunday and we were conscious that most things would be closed, we jumped on the bikes again and headed along the river into Tours.

A good decision, if you aren’t too bothered about shopping, as the cycle route only had a handful of families on it, running, walking and cycling… obviously too cold and grey for most. It did however, look like a good place to shop, not only hosting some of the big names, but also lots of interesting looking boutiques, restaurants and cafes – somewhere to come back and explore further another time.

Although we were expecting to see a little more of the sun the following day, we woke once again to mist and despite taking the opportunity to do the washing – forever optimists – it just didn’t lift again…we were stuck in a big, slightly damp cloud!!

We left the washing out though – to get some air if nothing else – and jumped on the bikes to head the other direction along the Loire to try and find Sleeping Beauty… a mysteriously beautiful (and a little cold) ride.

The Chateau d’Ussy is nestled in the woodland about 1.5km from the Loire, and it is fair to say that it is quite impressive, so not too much of a surprise that it was apparently what inspired Charles Perrault to write the fairy tale in 1697….although, it was the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany that inspried Disney for his films…

Having brough our picnic lunch with us… which we were quite grateful of – being a Monday in November… I think it was more the ‘November’, than a Monday on this occassion, the little that surrounded the Chateau was closed….so not even a coffee to warm us, before we headed back to our still very damp – but clean – washing.

Wanting to escape from beneath the cloud of fog and mist, we decided to do a long haul down to Bordeaux where we had booked into Camping Village du Lac for two nights as I quite fancied another look around, having last stopped off here ten years ago in the first motorhome.

The campsite was in a great location – just 7km outside the city by a lake…although innevitably being a little warmer and located by the water we also had some uninvited guests in the form of mosquitos…

The following day, we woke to thick fog again – it was obviously following us – but we were hopeful it would burn off, and to be fair, as we cycled into Bordeaux the sun managed to come out, providing us with beautiful blue skies to explore the city. Weirdly however, as we started to head back to the campsite later in the afternoon, we found that it had been foggy and damp all day. As we were able to take advantage of the sunshine in Bordeaux we weren’t too bothered, and the added bonus was that apparently mosquitoes aren’t too keen on fog either….

Big cities out of the system for a while now, we headed back into the land of beauty and wine – Chateau du Payne – another incredible France Passion stop over in the middle of beautiful rolling hills on the Bordeaux/St Emillion borders.

We arrived at lunchtime, parked up and after having some lunch we were just about to head out for a walk when ‘grandad’ popped over and asked us if we wanted to look around the fabrication area and production process of the vinyard. We felt guilty as he was heading off for a family reunion for the weekend as they were about to welcome their first great, great grandchild…. but he insisted on taking his time to show us everything – which of course, at this time of year had just been cleaned down after the harvest.

The set up they had was impressive and they have evolved and changed as they went biodynamic. They have also been trialing the traditional Roman clay pots for certain wines over the last 5 years to see how that effects the flavour palate. An inspirational guy who had a huge passion for what he does and wanted to share as much as possible which was lovely.

We did manage to try some of the wines before he hit the road and although we only tried four – one white and three reds – it is fair to say that they were corpulant and rich in flavour….. the wine store is filling up!

We set off with blue skies in the morning to do our last little hop to arrive in Moissac, where the Aire is wedged in between The Tarn river and the Canal du Garonne… a very pretty spot.

The Aire was already fairly busy, probably part due to the long weekend (today being a national holiday), part simply because its a lovely, tranquil place. The town is about 15 minutes walk, where there is an impressive Abbey and markets on Saturday and Sunday – the Saturday one at least, was full of local food producers selling their produce direct, although we didn’t go in on Sunday.

Walking along the canal just 1.5km from the Aire is a beautiful aquaduct… obviously made even more stunning by the autumnal colours. Then venturing out on the bikes in one direction on Sunday and today the other, we found peaceful, continous canal lined with trees.

Today’s cycle took us over to Montech – where we found the ‘Water Slope’, a boat lift that raises larger boats just under 13.5m – a truly impressive invention….

Once again, we have been cooking up a couple of new, interesting and tasty recipes that we’d like to share …

– Pot Barley and Mushroom Risotto
– Anchovy and Artichoke Pasta

And of course, the map….