And so the (unplanned) adventure begins. From today, we are going to travel wherever our heart desires on the day. I have dropped a few pins on maps of southern France and Spain in Google Maps, but apart from that we are making it up as we go. Today we plan to head in the direction of south-western France and eventually Spain around San Sebastian, so today we ventured through the Loire Valley to show the kids come real life castles.
We didn’t start the day with any sense of urgency, but by days end maybe we should have, as we haven’t ended up as far from Paris as we could have. While the girls did the things that girls do, I sat over at the building in the car park that houses toilets and showers, amongst what we think was accomodation to for the military staff on duty at Disneyland. I wanted to charge all of our devices - camera batteries, laptop, phones, battery packs, etc before moving on, so I followed someone else’s lead and found a powerpoint next to a door so I could sit outside for an hour while waiting for the charging to happen. Did I mention that it is raining and a pretty miserable looking day?
Leaving Disneyland heading southwest we encountered our first Peage (toll) road and it cost a mere €23 - OUCH! I suppose this is what you need to pay to get out of a city like Paris ;). Our first stop was Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Valley. It is the valley’s largest, with 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces and 85 staircases. It sits in Europe’s largest walled park at 54 sq kms, which also serves as a hunting reserve for the elite, with only 10 sq kms having open access to the public. We only ended up doing a drive by, as the only option for parking a camper van was to pay for 24hrs (o/n camping) and it was very expensive. The only day parking option was free, but you had to walk about 3 kms to get to the Chateau. Welcome to France and camper van use. They even put low bars above the entrance to car parks so you cannot drive into carparks.
So with a snap of the Chateau from a distance (and after an illegally parked camper van), we moved on, heading for Chateau Chaumont. On the way out of the Chateau Chambord reserve we started out on small local roads. We drove through a village - like so many I have seen watching Le Tour from home, and it struck a chord with me. A tiny, very non-nondescript town, where beige houses are built right up to the road, at some points so much so that the road is a single lane and the camper van only just fits through. Then in the middle of the town is a church and square where cars can park and people congregate, with some small local shops - no branding, no advertising. It was a bit of a surreal moment for me, having wanted to experience this first hand for a few years. Only wish we stopped, but I feel there’ll be plenty more opportunities.
Before getting to our next chateau, we went through Blois and stopped at a larger supermarket to stock the camper van. It was also a pretty town in itself - with the city centre sitting high atop a cliff above the Loire river, but with the day disappearing, we didn’t waste any time and continued to Chateau Chaumont on the same river.
At Chamount sue Loire, we initially pulled up beside the river and walked around town trying to find the entrance to the chateau high in a hill, and when we eventually found the top entrance it was closing in half an hour. It was also very expensive to enter, as it was currently hosting a contemporary art exhibition, so yet again we looked from afar, and saved our pennies for another day.
On our circumnavigation of the chateau and its ground, we came across a basketball court, and our netball addicted Sierra just had to find some nuts/acorns on the ground and practice her shooting. It was here that some local children started chatting to us, and they even followed us for some of the walk back down the hill to the camper van on the river.
Given the time of day, we decided to check out the municipal campground and learnt that we could stay on the river for a mere €13 with power. When we discovered that it also had a playground for the kids, the decision was made and we setup camp for the night.
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