Turquant - 04 May 2022

Wednesday, 4 May 2022 - Turquant (Loire)

Click on any of the smaller photos to enlarge.

Ha, spoke too soon about sleeping well! By 12.30 Tintin moved into the double bed up front, I carried on reading until about 1.30am, and still couldn’t sleep - never mind - should be tired tonight!

Had a slower start to the day. Tintin driving - went about 10 minutes to a LeClerc to fill up with diesel. €1.899 per litre! Then about 30 minutes along the Loire to Turquant.

We’ve since had a busy day - over 11,000 steps and cycled for over 9 miles too - Tintin’s body has been having stern words with him!

We cycled into Montsoreau and picked up a walking map, including Candes Saint-Martin - both proclaimed to be ‘two of the prettiest villages in France’.

The stonework here is white, there are flowers everywhere, and looks ‘clean’. We were a bit alarmed by sirens going off - should we be seeking shelter?! Perhaps a practice run for VE Day on 8th? There is also the first nuclear power station built in 1957 nearby. Anyway, nothing happened to us!

Lots of beautiful roses, some even had a proper roses smell!

The Château Montsoreau was primarily built around 1455. We had the best views of the area after walking up to the panoramic view. From here you can see the confluence between Vienne and Loire rivers. Whilst up there, we thought we saw a woodpecker, upon closer inspection of the photos back in Dave - it was a Jay!

We then walked into Candes-Saint-Martin - we both thought we’d been here before, could remember taking the photo of the slab showing Saint Martin dying in 397! Again, back in Dave; Tintin found our photos from 2016 on our cycling holiday in the Loire.

Regardless, it’s an impressive Gothic church!

On our walk back down we encountered the black dog. Don’t know what sort it is - no emotion whatsoever - no barking, no tail wagging, wanted to approach it, but decided it might just bark (or bite!) if we got any closer!

Walking back above the village there are some troglodyte cave dwellings built in the cliff.

After about 90 minutes walking, decided we should sit at a cafe, have a drink and enjoy people watching.

I then decided perhaps we could cycle up to Fontevraud Abbey as it was only 5.5km away. I stupidly thought we’d take some photos and leave. No! Paid our €24, just to get inside.

The Abbey was founded in 1099 and had both monks and nuns living there according to Benedictine rule, always headed by an abbess, born of an influential aristocratic family. It houses tombs of the house of Plantagenet.  Inside of the abbey church is quite plain, built in white stone and has numerous columns, arches and carved chapter stones. In the centre of the church are the tombstone effigies of Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart who are buried here.

The cloisters looked really good, helped by the fact there weren’t many people there.

By the time the French Revolution forced the closure of the abbeys, Fontevraud was the most powerful abbey in France. It was transformed into a prison by Napoleon in 1804 and remained one until its closure in 1963 (although the last prisoner apparently didn’t leave until 1985!)

Personally, I found the information about its time as a prison quite interesting. In the disciplinary rooms inmates had to alternate between jogging around for 10 minutes, then sitting for 20 minutes with legs together and straight backs. This punishment could go on for days! The strict discipline, the cold, the compulsory silence, the forced labour in unhealthy workshops combined to make Fontevraud one of the harshest penitentiaries in France.

We walked to the top of the gardens to look back on the abbey from the vantage point. The huge bell there was actually built this year!

Neither of us have ever had issues with bees. We do now!  There are bee hives up there, didn’t even get close, but one chased us all the way down the hill. It was burrowed in my hair twice, and crawled all over Tintin - couldn’t escape it fast enough!

Was it worth the money? Perhaps not - there was nothing left inside any of the buildings, and you get the impression it’s been over renovated and looks almost too new. However, was a huge area to wander around, and very peaceful.

We came back to Dave about 4.30pm, happy to have a sit down and a cuppa!

We’re in another free parking place courtesy of park4night. There are a few mohos here, the French one next to us has a cat, which has a harness and a lead. As much as we’d love to bring Millie, I really wouldn’t feel happy leaving her in here for multiple hours at a time, especially if it was really hot.

Dean has been up again, nice to see the caves just behind us.

Well, for a change we’ve opened a bottle of Cremant, and I’m off of chop up some veggies for tea!