Port Maillard - 02 May 2022

Monday, 2 May 2022 - Port Maillard (on Loire)

I stayed up and finished another book. So quiet overnight, just frogs - no street light parking - just how we like it! Park4night reviews had complained about the chicken noise, but not a problem.

Braved shorts again, but Tintin stuck to jeans for our cycle. Let’s not cycle as far he said, ok I said - then we cycled for over 14-1/2 miles!

We were parked right on the cycle route, so seemed like a plan. Went as far as La Possonnière, not a great deal to see - but lovely to be in the great outdoors. Rode back to Dave, and then off in the other direction.

Had my foreign cat fix! Very friendly, came running up to us.

Yesterday I said we were in Challones-sur-Loire, but we weren’t actually! That’s where we went today - about 2km away. Bought a baguette and a chocolate eclair each - well, we’re away!

I bet some children must be delighted with their fantastic tree house!

After lunch - the fun began! Tintin drove about 10 minutes so we could ‘service’ Dave. Our water hasn’t tasted right, even after boiling - maybe still some chemicals from when Tintin cleaned out the pipes before we came away? Anyway, ditched all the water, flushed it out, and we’re good to go again.

He then drove what should have been about 30 minutes to a Lidl on the outskirts of Angers. Managed to go the wrong way four times! It’s fair to say that the signage was confusing, telling us to stay right, when Tintin knew he should be left, not telling us which exit to take, etc. We knew straight away each time we’d gone wrong, which I suppose is a bonus!  We got there in the end. Huge carpark, with multiple stores. Bought lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, the one thing we definitely needed was water, as we’d been using our bottled water for the kettle and cooking. The one thing Lidl didn’t have - water! There were quite a few sparse looking shelves - much like Guernsey at times at the moment.

We walked through the massive carpark and went to a Géant - and staggered back to Dave with 24 bottles!

I was pleased to leave the suburbs of Angers, and only 10 minutes later we were parked up at Port Maillard. Not as exclusive as last night! More mohos, and cars - large area which I guess is packed in summer.

We parked up, then the moho with the best view at the front left, so we quickly took prime position!

There’s a really friendly Alsatian looking dog, everyone keeps asking everyone else if it’s their dog. We haven’t found out who owns her (?). She goes through the same routine with newcomers, wags her tail, sits, offers her paw, then wants you to throw her stick. Some children were throwing sticks into the Loire, which here seems fairly fast flowing, but the dog managed to get out each time.

We think we must be easily pleased. Quite happy just to see different scenery and be outside. It’s always a shame to realize how little we know about nature, and have these discussions asking each other questions - only Google can help us here!

So rum o’clock - all is well, and once again - no idea where we’ll be tomorrow!