Europe 1987
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 2018
We left the Youth Hostel at 9:00am after making our own breakfast. Our destination for today was Saumur, about 260 kilometres west of Vierzon (on the route we took).
Our first stop was at Romorantin, a delightful town set on both sides of the Sauldre River, a tributary of the Cher River which in turn is a tributary of the Loire River. We continued driving towards the west, and we made a short stop in Billy to admire the castle which dominated the town from a high hill overlooking some beautiful old houses and streets beneath.
From Billy, we drove north-west to see two very impressive castles, Cheverny (built from 1624 to 1630, which we walked through) and Chambord (built in the French Renaissance style from 1519 to 1547, which we saw from the outside).
We proceeded to Blois, where we stopped for lunch before continuing our drive south-west to Montrichard, and then west to Chenonceaux where we looked around the castle built to span the Cher River, surrounded by lovely gardens and forested land. We did visit the interior of the château, and as you might expect in a French Renaissance castle built from 1514 to 1522, it was lavish, especially the walls decorated with huge tapestries.
Leaving Chenonceaux, we took a short diversion northwards to Amboise where a ruined castle towered over the town below, which in turn had a beautiful city gate with a clock tower. We then continued driving along the Loire River, through the large town of Tours and on to Azay-le-Rideau, where we only managed a glimpse of the beautiful Renaissance chateau. Our final stop before reaching Saumur was Chinon, where we spent some time exploring the old streets and ruined castle over the town.
We continued into Saumur where we spent the night in a small 2-star hotel in Avenue David d’Angers opposite the railway station, aptly named L’Escale de la Gare (which means “the stopover at the station”).
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Day 50
Vierzon to Saumur
Monday 31 August 1987
