We arrived on Friday night at le Neman, which is South East of Tours in the Touraine region. We quickly discovered that it is just down the road from a nuclear power plant, leading to many jokes about "the serenity" - and when driving along the A85 autoroute we know we are almost home when we see the steam!! You wouldn't know it though when you get to the village itself which is a picture of rural France - very quiet and sleepy, with its stone walls and old houses and its trees along the river.
The house we are in is across the road from the Indre river. We woke to a gorgeous Autumn Saturday morning and after a run along the Loire a Velo track we headed off to explore nearby towns, but not before Zoe had made the most of the Autumn leaves in the courtyard.....
First stop was Montsoreau and Candes St-Martin, then we drove past the troglodyte buildings which are built into the side of the cliff on to Saumur where we wandered the markets and had lunch.
Later we drove to and wandered around Chinon where, after climbing to the top to see the castle, surprise surprise, it was then time for (another) beer in the sun.
The next day it was time to hit the Zoo de Beauval, which was about an hour's drive, just out of a gorgeous little town called St Aignan sur Cher. The big hit was the giant pandas, as well as the sea lion show, but Amelia also got a kiss from a giraffe:
On the last day we went to the nearby castle of Rigny-Usse where the writer of Sleeping Beauty (la belle du bois dormant) was said to have got his inspiration - there were lots of mannequins in the castle which gave a sense of how life was lived at the time, as well as a narrative of the fairytale, complete with spooky lights..
The last of the chateaux was Azay-le-Rideau which was my pick of the bunch even though it is undergoing major restoration work which meant a lot of the exterior was scaffolded. It appealed because of its proportions - not too overwhelming but grand enough with its outlook across an impressive moat and huge trees, their Autumn leaves falling, to the village at its doorstep on one side and the gardens on the other.
The kids' favourite room in the castles we saw was often la chambre du roi - we learned that all the chateaux were required to have a bedroom for the King so that they could host him if he decided to turn up for a night or two!
Then it was time for the last supper at our lovely little house, L'ile bellule, before the pack up and another move south.
Amelia says: The river of the Loire valley feels like it's never-ending - it goes through so many villages. The zoo de Beauval was spectacular but I have to admit all the animals in the enclosures look really sad. I was lucky enough to get a kiss from a giraffe, I think it was because of the fur on my jacket. The lions all looked really sad and I heard one roaring. My favourite animal was probably the chimps 'cause one of the mothers was ready to have a baby and her bum looked like a monkey's face. The panda was really funny when it was climbing a tree because it looked like the tree was about to break. I loved the Loire valley.
Harvey says : The Loire valley is very picture-skew. It was very serene with the nuclear power plant churning on in the background. We always knew we were close to home when we saw the steam rising from the plant. There were lots of amazing outings including Azay-le-Rideau and the zoo which had my favourite three animals : the meerkat, the koala and the red panda. Dad says the koala is my perfect icon because it spends 18 hours of the day sleeping because it only eats gum tree leaves which provide zilch nutrients. Even when the koala is awake it is still sifting like a lizard, as mum would put it. Overall I loved the Loire valley, it was an amazing experience.
Zoe says : I loved the zoo because it had lots of animals. My favourite animal was the panda. He tried to climb a tree and it wobbled, then he went in the hammock. Then he started eating his bamboo again. It was so cute, it stared at me. At the sleeping beauty castle we saw the wicked witch casting her spells. They looked really creepy.
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