Next stop on our travels was to be a campsite in between Blois and Château de Chambord further up the Loire. Our drive up was along the banks of the river and while it’s not the most beautiful river itself the towns dotted along it most certainly are. The farmland too spreads as far as the eye can see and where there aren’t crops growing there are vineyards.
We had had to leave earlier in the day from Montsoreau as it was a Sunday and while the supermarkets were open until midday pretty much everything else was shut and we needed to stock up on food. Luckily when we woke up we saw there was a market in the local village so managed to stock up on some tasty veggies, fruit, cheeses and loads more!
Our campsite for the next couple of nights was about 5km outside of Blois and once we arrived and got set up we jumped on our bikes and headed in for a walk around. As it was a Sunday only some restaurants were open but it was actually quite nice walking around without the place being too busy. The town centre was old and dominated by a chateau and a cathedral and we had a little look around enjoying the architecture and the beauty of the place.
The Château de Chambord was the attraction that most people were in the campsite to see and the next day we set off on our bikes to enjoy our 30km round trip to see it.
The ride was mostly on bike paths and took us along the Loire, through woods and quaint villages and once we arrived and got our first glimpses of the Château it looked liked the inspiration for Disneyland. It was also almost that busy too!!
We joined the throngs and entered the Chateau and spent a couple of hours wandering around the four floors. The size of the place was probably what was most impressive. The rooms were massive and the central staircase and accompanying halls were bigger still. The displays were all in French and English so we were able to brush up on a bit of our French history while working our way through the place.
I think for us though the most impressive floor was the roof top where we were able to look at the spires close up and then turn and enjoy wonderful views of the surrounding gardens and countryside beyond.
We relaxed in the gardens and enjoyed our lunch of ham and cheese baguette (again I know but still delicious) while gazing up at the Château which I really do think is more impressive from the outside.
We walked around the gardens and enjoyed an ice cream before jumping back on the bikes and finishing the ride off back to the van. By this stage it had got a bit warmer and the headwind we were riding into was doing little to cool us down yet we kept pedalling and soon enough we were back at the campsite and looking forward to relaxing.
The campsites we were at were quite large (or our van is quite small not sure?) and we had positioned ourselves so as to maximise the shade in the afternoon. At the time of set up the place was pretty empty so there was no one around yet when we arrived back from our ride we noticed a van had parked pretty close to us. Not usually a problem as most vans open up the same way so you are not usually face to face. Unfortunately though while we were trying to maximise our shade our Dutch neighbours were determined to enjoy some sun baking so we had a slightly awkward afternoon of attempting to relax while basically staring straight at each other. We had to laugh 😂 T