The Loire - Angers.

Time to leave Bordeaux for the Loire valley, food basket of Paris, valley of the Kings, a showcase for Local history and hopefully a great slice of rural France! A hard day for most of it, up too early after te end of the wine tour dinner, so somewhat slow on our feet. The TGV, the local bullet train to be mastered and that was no small feat getting ourselves and heavy cases through a sizeable station with the minimum assistance or time available. Survived that, then into a left hand drive Peugeot and a prick of an exercise getting out of the township of Tours where the train dropped us. Survived that, including one occassion stopping the traffic as I departed a messy intersection, lost all idea of where to go and pulled to the left of the roadside to get out of the way but of course it was facing the line of oncoming traffic. Survived that, other tensions arose but we got more fluent with thedriving, stopped stalling the 6 speed manual and got us through the pretty, pasture and forest landscape to the town of Angers ('on- jay'). The roads into the city are rotten, as the city approaches seem to be everywhere, being very busy motorways, only occassional on ad off ramps, signage not always easy and chuck in a few toll gates and not enough change in the car and you about have it. But once inside the town all is forgiven, in another just beautiful, pedestrian friendly, old world environment. Bursting with people, including loads of young ones who seem to live with their friends in social gatherings and chat-a-thons on the street. The city is at the junction of the Maine river as it joins the Loire river. At that junction is possibly the city's greatest treasure Chateau d'Anger, a fortressed enclave, with 'curtain walks' of sheer rock and 17 'drum' towers, a 'powerful feudal fortress' with a (now dry) moat. Built about 1230 AD. very imposing and beautiful in its simple design and sheer scale. We enjoyed many other sights in the town, walking around, stopping for a beer, then dinner in a small packed restaurant. Very happy experience and now conked out and about to sleep the day off.