Champigny-sur-Veude - 05 May 2022

Thursday, 5 May 2022 - Champigny sur Veude

Last night there were at least four horses in the fields in front of us, just so happened when they went past it had started to rain!

Last night was my turn in the big bed! Once again, so quiet overnight, and no lights anywhere.

We’d decided to walk into Turquant this morning with a view to a general wander around, and we were going to buy a jeton (a token) so we could fill Dave up with water in the village. But no, the Mairie was closed for another 4 hours, so gave up on that idea. We really don’t mind having to pay to service Dave, it’s just the hassle of finding a tabac or Mairie open, and then there are a few different types of jetons, so not worth stocking up on…

We took a photo of the village walk (no one in the information office, just leaflets!), and set off. We were in the region of ‘apple tappers’. The cave of the apple tappers at le Val Hulin, is where oven dried apples were tapped into compressed discs known as pommes tapees and preserved for up to ten years! This process became popular after the vines were wiped out in the late 1800s due to phylloxera (a yellow louse). We didn’t fancy a tour, it was about 12° in the caves, not dressed for that!

A troglodyte is an occupant of a dwelling hollowed out of rock, a cave - not a cave dweller! The caves here are all man made. I can see why, the stone - tufa (a variety of limestone) - is really soft, I could scratch it easily with my nails!

There were about 2,000 mills in 1850. The advent of modern technologies and the discovery of other sources of energy decimated the mills. I was hoping to see some remains - but no!

Our walk took us up and up to field upon field of vines. The grapes are tiny little pin heads just now!

For centuries the Loire River was a great waterway due to its length and position. The rise of the railways put paid to the previous flourishing trade.

There were a few metal sculptures on the way around fashioned out of old cutlery and bits and pieces, but effective.

It was a pleasant walk, taking nearly two hours!

Avocado salad for lunch - no boulangerie in Turquant!, then off with me driving. We’d deliberated for ages last night about where to go next and couldn’t decide. A quick look today and I found a place on park4night where there are services as well as free parking. Only took about 40 minutes of easy driving to get here. There are five moho spaces - absolutely huge too. Only downside to the service area is we can’t use a hose to fill up with water. We have a collapsible 15 ltr container, and then we have to pour via a funnel into a hose into the tank - 6 trips back and forth - not a quick business! There’s a children’s park, and a lake in front of us. A man fishing there was pulling out fish after fish - all quite small. Looks like they have mole problems - mounds of earth all over the place.

Also, some of the trees look dead, and have been taken over by what looks like spider’s webs. Inside you can see lots of little larvae squirming around - didn’t look too closely!

We went in search of the boulangerie - it was closed until 3.30pm.

There is a huge château (La Sainte Chapelle) and Chapelle St Louis, but all closed - and sadly looks run down.

The weather perked up, and was really hot when not cloudy, so chairs out to read outside. Kept getting distracted by wildlife right in front of us! The two huge swans have been here all afternoon, even came up the bank and were just a few metres away. Then we saw the coypu. According to Google, these are also known as Nutria, a large herbivorous semi aquatic rodent. “In the UK trapping commenced for the final time in 1981, with the last wild coypu eradicated in East Anglia during 1989. There have been no confirmed reports of coypu in the wild since this time. The total cost of this successful eradication of coypu from the UK has been estimated at £2.5 million.”

We also saw rats, watched by the cats above!

Over 12,500 steps today, but it hasn’t felt like that far. A very pleasant day, not doing much.