The day started with a 6.30 am ride. The countryside was covered in a thick fog lying across the fields of vines. With visibility down to about 100 metres in places it was difficult to make out the terrain. It seems that there is a village every 6 to 10k apart and at that time of the morning the streets are deserted.
Taking just the names of the villages for the morning circuit was a mistake as I got lost and needed to navigate by my in-built human GPS system. I should be a homing pigeon in the next life. Including time to replace a punctured tube, I arrived back home on schedule for a day of sight-seeing with Sue.
Taking just the names of the villages for the morning circuit was a mistake as I got lost and needed to navigate by my in-built human GPS system. I should be a homing pigeon in the next life. Including time to replace a punctured tube, I arrived back home on schedule for a day of sight-seeing with Sue. Decided to take her on the same course I rode to show some sights I discovered in the late morning before going off to the market in Montrichard in the arvo and then to the caves at Bourre.
The caves today are used to grow mushrooms but this underground cave system of 180 kms of passage ways was used to 
excavate the white stone to build the many châteaux in the region during the 15th and 16th centuries. We thought that we were about to be the only people for the tour until a group of several French couples turned up. Possibly on an end of season petanque tour. Anyway they had obviously come straight from lunch judging by their gregarious behaviour. They were both loud and happy but friendly. As the tour went on we started conversing in Franglais mixed with sign language. This was not the last we would see of these people whom Sue called “the mushroom” people. By the way, we did understand that one of the men was a chauffeur for some French tennis player who lives in Spain these days.
excavate the white stone to build the many châteaux in the region during the 15th and 16th centuries. We thought that we were about to be the only people for the tour until a group of several French couples turned up. Possibly on an end of season petanque tour. Anyway they had obviously come straight from lunch judging by their gregarious behaviour. They were both loud and happy but friendly. As the tour went on we started conversing in Franglais mixed with sign language. This was not the last we would see of these people whom Sue called “the mushroom” people. By the way, we did understand that one of the men was a chauffeur for some French tennis player who lives in Spain these days.At the end of the last section of the caves was an incredible masterpiece of sculpturing from the walls of the rock to create an underground village. Started a decade ago, it is an ongoing project.
Later in the arvo, our hosts, Michael and Carol - expat Brits brought around a basket of their home grown lettuce, radish and spinach. They have invited us for dinner later in the week with their friends Alan and Catherine from the UK.
Looking forward to it coz they sound like really good fun.
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