Wow, did it blow last night! What we didn't know is that we were on the edge of a storm that hit northern Italy and southern France. Since we were overlooking a valley the wind whistled up the slope by us, but not badly enough to be worried. (Though J had her sleep interrupted.) It cleared up by morning though.
Plenty of pleasant towns along the Loir (not to be confused with the Loire, though they are close), so we wandered around Montoire-sur-le-Loir.
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Note the laundries at the back of each property
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This one's for Mike. Did he make his own back in the day? If not, he'd love this one.
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The bed bugs come big in this town! Trilobites of course.
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We ended up in Troo. This area of France was an ancient inland lake, so there is (relatively) soft limestone everywhere. Inhabitants dug into the soft hillsides for quarries, storage (including mushrooms and wine of course), wells, and houses. Troo has a good selection of all of them on show.
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| This family left in 1962. I didn't pick on where they went. |
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Now...
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...and then
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| The water passing through the limestone is filtered so very clear and quite drinkable, though full of calcium (aka, limescale). The public well was used until 1972. |
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| Many/most houses have their own water grottoes. This one was a church and over a hundred years of calcification has left the font and alter petrified. Things left in the cave have suffered the same fate - a goblet has a 3-4 mm covering, and a a large bowl is following suit. The lights are recent but have already got a thin coating. |
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A town gate now...
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...and Then.
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Le chat de la chateau
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A nice view over the open rolling countryside from the butte - an ancient defensive mound
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In contrast to last night we had a very quiet sheltered spot away from roads and young motorcyclists.
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