Loches and Chedigny
We wake in our new home for four nights and the sun is once again shining. We have a slow start to the day and head into our nearest town which is Loches. We had a quick look last night when we headed into the supermarche to get something for dinner, without success I might add. But let’s not go there except to say that Sunday night is not a big night for anything to be open in Loches let alone a supermarche.
We park the car and head through town to the tourist centre and do a bit of browsing. I buy the compulsory Christmas decoration for the tree and still love the surprise on the bored customer service person face when they ask where you are from (it must be customary in tourist info centres) and we say “Nouvelle Zealand”. It always seems to either start a conversation or at least exert a wonderful smile.
We wander some more and stop and buy breakfast (raspberry tart of course) but without the bad coffee. We walk through the gardens and around the ramparts, past towers and of course churches and steeples. It’s nicknamed the strolling town and I can see why.
We decide to head further afield to the garden of Chedigny and it is well worth the visit. It is famous for its climbing roses which have all but finished in bloom and must have been quite spectacular but for us are still very pretty.
Breakfast seems along time ago and we wander past the boulangerie which is disappointingly closed. A little further along we find a little restaurant under a huge wisteria and enjoy a wonderful plat du jour. We start as the only ones and then it begins to fill. Two ladies lunching, a couple with a big old dog who literally sighs with relief and plonks down under the table (the dog that is not the couple) and then three very young priests, kitted out in their heavy black robes in the hot afternoon sun. The tables fill and the food comes and goes and the people and food watching and eating make for a really pleasant lunch.
We finish our wandering and head back to the car along a track that we think is short-cut and ends up being a a very long cut and not at all that interesting, unless you are into bugs and insects. Which you will note I am not.
