Watery Memories

Whenever we hear helicopters overhead we are taken straight back to the flood in Boscastle which happened 20 years ago in 2004 when many people were rescued over several hours by the very skilful pilots flying that day. Last night we were casually chomping on our galettes and salad when we heard the throb of a very low chopper above the van. It turned out to be a SAMU rescue helicopter and it landed extremely close to us in the field across the road. EEEK! The pilot did a fabulous job not hitting any of the pylons surrounding the field. I managed to get a few shots as it took off into the night. We hope the person transported to hospital is ok.

Skilful flying

Off we go

Strangely enough, where we have parked this evening also has a flooding vibe despite being tranquil and relaxing - for now. We drove along the Loire today after a change of plan. Vendôme was our original target but we thought we’d check out the Chateau du Clos Lucé in Amboise instead. It was the home of Leonardo Da Vinci until he died (I had no idea he lived in this area) and sounded really interesting. Unfortunately, the Aire in town was closed due to roadworks so we had to quickly reorganise our target overnight spot. We’ll have to save Leonardo for another day.

Worrying water height marker

We spotted Chouzy sur Cisse so headed there. It’s a lovely lakeside area with a river running through it but we have since learned that it is prone to flooding, particularly in winter. As we walked around the lake we (well, especially me) were horrified to see the flood marker that showed a 2 metre mark from 1961 and just under a metre from 2001. I’ve checked the weather report and there shouldn’t be any rain tonight - fingers crossed. I hope we don’t find any more flood prone areas on our trip. Let’s see where we end up tomorrow.

Let’s hope the water stays in the lake

Town of Writing and Town of Prehistory

Love the look of this bookshop

As book lovers, when we saw we were close to ‘The City of Writing’, Montmorillon, we couldn’t resist a stopover. Our parking place was by the fast flowing river, Gartempe, and just a five minute walk into its famous medieval centre where all its bookshops and writing museums are located. Annoyingly, as we arrived on a winter’s Saturday afternoon, everything was shut but we enjoyed strolling around, soaking up the ambience and dreaming of when we could return to experience the place when the bookshop’s doors were flung open and life returned to the quiet streets.

Vieux Pont 

Loving their window displays

On a positive note, the macaron boutique and museum was open so I made a selection of coffee and hazelnut along with rose and lychee flavours to keep us going through the evening. Apparently they’ll last in the fridge for 8 to 10 days. I don’t think so! They’ll all be gone by this evening.

For sale in an antique shop

The sun came out this morning and we drove on to Le Grand Pressigny, famous for its prehistory museum which is located in a massive chateau above the town. For a change, the place was open but Hugo wasn’t allowed in so we were happy to walk around the gardens and enjoy the replica ancient animals that have been placed in the courtyard. 

Walking to the chateau

Hugo wasn’t keen

He quite liked the mammoth though


We found a recently opened restaurant/bar called La Cabane with extremely friendly owners. We got chatting and discovered the owner is a keen walker and plans to do the Compostela. Needless to say he and Graham bonded and shared observations about the lightness of different brands of walking gear. A knowing eye roll was shared between his wife and I. Tomorrow they head to Spain en vacance and we head to Vendǒme.