No Mischief tonight?

Tuesday 31st October 2017 - Turquant, near Saumur.

We woke fresh from a deep sleep, sound in the knowledge that Burnley had beaten Newcastle 1-0 last night and now holding 7th place in the Premiership.  We packed up the van after breakfast and departed from Chez Vernon!  We gave David and Wendy big thanks for their kind hospitality and waved goodbye.

It's not often that we retrace our steps because we like to go to new places and see new things but we made a snap decision to retrace the steps we took two years ago when we visited David and Wendy.  Therefore we headed back towards Saumur on the Loire River.  

On the way we stopped for provisions at the Netto store at Aizenay.  It's a long time since we shopped at a Netto, I'm not sure they still operate in the UK (not near us anyway).  It was OK, not fancy but it seemed well stocked and it looked to be decent quality.  The most important thing we bought was a new propane gas bottle.

We stopped further down the road for a coffee stop and I couldn't stop myself from trying out the fridge on gas again.......and........yippee, it worked first time.  The problem starting it must have been something to do with gas pressure from the old gas bottle running low.

We arrived in Saumur around early afternoon.  We remembered our last visit on Oct 14th 2015.  It was bright and cold then!  Probably a bit warmer today and the town was prettier because they had been in the process of digging up some of the main square which spoiled the centre.  No such problems on this occasion.


Saumur is famous for its lovely chateau.  It continues to be restored but it was stunning never the less.

And the views were super dooper too!

This is Sir Richard de Vernon before he came to Britain.  It's a spooky resemblance!  Especially spooky on Hallowe'en. 

We did the full chateau tour, which is unusual for us but it was only 6 euros and it is a major chateau.  We were getting a bit cold so we moved back to the van and found our Aire de Camping Car from our previous visit.  It's a few miles further along the Loire at a troglodyte village called Turquant.  We parked in exactly the same place as two years ago.

I wonder if we will get any Trick or Treaters?

We had a basic meal and no alcohol.  I think we are carrying a few extra kilo's that we didn't have last week!  It's our first night in the van since the clock went back at the weekend.  It will be dark by 6pm.....we will have the van blinds shut to keep the dark out.  I could pop out for a bit of mischief on mischief night.....I fancy sneeking up to other camper vans and giving them a shake and then running away!

We are moving along north and west to visit other friends, Sian and Ger, who live overlooking the Seine River - not far from the town of Vernon.  So we will continue to retrace our steps of two years ago. We are gradually coming home for next week but still have more to look forward to before then.

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