We think the French hide some of the roads that they call "Tourist Route's"... Leaving Angers was a good example. We were looking for the intersection that would take us from Angers and allow us to follow the Loire to Saumur. We lookie high and low and finally Louise just said, "lets just head that was and we will (should) find the river and then we can contunue even if we make up our own way... After running around in circles for about 45 minutes, we did just that. As luck would have it, we did find our road. It wasn't about just finding a rouad, it was about finding some of those great "chateaus" that are found i the Loire Valley. Once on the correct road, we did find our chateaus. Fact is, we put together another "French" picnic and ate on the grounds of Le Chateau d' Amour (Chateau de Saumer). It sits high on the hill overlooking the town of Saumur, the valley and the River Loire. It is amazing as in this area alone, there must be 10 "chateaus. We've opted not to visit the interior of each and everyone and we probable wqill only see i 1 in 15 totally anyway. Most of these chateau are in need of some of total remodel and that takes more money thatn the illages, towns, or private owners can afford. Down the river, our next stop was at "Fontevraud Abbeye Royale". This was a huge Abbey that consisted of the mister church, the "Grand-Moutire Cloister", the refectory and dormitories, the "Romanesque kitchen, and the Saint Benoit Infirmaries. Everything here dates bvack to the 13 and 14th centuries. This cloisdter followed the Benedictine rules, which were very strict. We were able to jump into a guided tour that was about half through, but we did learn a lot even in that short a time. This hole area is built on chalk, just as we found in England around Dover. The stone that they use for building isd pretty soft, so it doesn't last as long as those built with granite or marble. As we continued our drive along the river, we passed a very small village that wasd carved into the side of the chalk hill. There must have been 15 to 20 individual homes. Then jsut a littlew further up river, we came upon a winery that was carved into the same hillside. Of coarse being a winery, we just had to stop, see and sample...What it was initially, was a large manor. We were abl to take a self-guided tour through all the rooms, and found it to be very interesting. In some respects it was kind of like BGon and Doug's home in CDA (underground) and another was like the B&B we stayed at in Cappadocia Turkey. This turned out to be the "stop of the day". Everything that we "tasted" we loved... it could have been disastrous, but we held it together by only buying 2 sparkling (Saumer Champigney "Lena") and a great red....belive me, when I tell you they are wondrful !!! Now we are off to find a place to stay. We finally ended up just outside of a small village called Loudun. The campsite is surrounded by wheat fields, a small lake, and a village park nexct door. As we checked in, we couldn't help but notice th people from Loudun coming in force to the park. They were having a great time with lots of booths for food, games, drinks, and a stage where they hadf a group of older men and women dancing "folk" dances. We even joined in in a couple of other games... Tomorrow...Cognac
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