Grey Skies

Cue for a song:

What a difference a day makes,
Twenty four little hours …

Where had all the sun gone? We collected our pain chocolat for our first indulgent French breakfast and headed south under grey skies with intermittent showers. We were treading a well trodden cross-country route (i.e. mostly off autoroutes) to a well-used camp site we know in Huisseau-sur-Cosson, just south of Blois on La Loire river.

We arrived after 4½ hours on real French roads. The owner recognized us from previous years, though he speaks very quietly and can be difficult to understand with our limited grasp of French, and we found a great secluded pitch for Billy. Starting somewhere familiar helps to get us into the swing of French life before striking out somewhere new.

This is one of those areas of France where we feel we could live. It’s real France and it’s chateau country, always interesting. There’s also been a lot of development of brilliantly linked cycle tracks in the area (see http://www.loire-a-velo.fr), some running through the beautiful ancient forests (hunting grounds) of the landed gentry, and is a great place to reduce reliance upon the car. We are within cycling distance of chateaux such as Chambord and Cheverney.

We’ll be buying copies of Aujour d’hui for weather maps and seeing how meteorological things develop while we have some exercise and a break from travelling.