Another gorgeous morning.
We were on a mission today – Nevers market – so we skipped breakfast, packed away and headed off. It was a typical November morning, hazy sunshine with mist hanging in the fields and very atmosphere. Then gradually, it got foggy – in places quite thick and stayed like that until we got the outskirts of Nevers.
We found the car park easily and reversed the Van into a spot. Blimey it was probably the first time we had parked without trauma or breaking sweat. It was just gone 9am – another wow! We walked through the streets of Nevers until we reached the Marche Carnot – there was an indoor market full of butchers, bakers and vegetable stalls and outside, other vendors spreading out around the adjacent streets. We wandered around the stalls, buying bits and pieces and then discovered the flea market in a small park area selling allsorts of bric and brac so had a browse around that.
We stopped at a cafe and had a petit dejeuner and then went off to buy some more food off the stall holders. The Pup was getting more than her fair share of pats and being made a fuss of which she thoroughly enjoyed. Nevers was a nice little town with some elegant buildings but the Town Fathers had allowed a couple of square carbuncles to be built near the market, which was made worse as they had been abandoned for some time – they just needed a stick of dynamite, they were that bad. We then wandered back to the Van and headed off to our next campsite, the fog gone, but the day was overcast. We stayed on the minor roads today, with rolling hills as we left Nevers and then it all levelled out to flat farmland . At La Marche, we picked up the River Loire and ran parallel with it for the rest of the journey, crossing over to the other side at the pretty town of La Charite sur Loire, with a little island in the middle. We went slightly inland and picked up the Canal lateral de la Loire, its waters lying low. We were back to rolling countryside, woodlands and pretty villages as we ran alongside the canal, spotting many herons and egrets fishing in the water. Outisde the village of St Bouize we came across signs warning us of boar hunting in the woods and we half expected a boar to shoot out in front of us. It was a lovely route by the canal with the golden trees lining the way until we reached Fouchard and crossed both the canal and the River Loire at Cosne -Cours-sur-Loire. We passed a couple of power stations with their cooling towers dominating the skyline, one right against the road that you saw the water cascading down at the base of the towers. We stopped outside Briare for a cuppa and a bite to eat, letting the Pup have a run on the grass. Several goats were eating grass behind a wire fence and trotted over to watch Pup chase sticks and charge around – they almost looked baffled. In Nevers, Hubby had spotted a la galette aux griaudes, a large scone like bun which was a speciality of the region – as I was trying to google it, the stallholder launched into a full description of it, albeit in French and Hubby nodded sagely, before buying one. Finally I discovered that it was basically a bread roll with pork crackling pieces inside. Hubby decided that he would have it for lunch and was really looking forward to it, took a couple of bites of it and left it on the table – it wasn’t very nice, tasting of fat more than anything apparently. What a disappointment.
Feeling better with a cuppa, we carried on, back to following the River Loire until we arrived at Saint-Pere-sur-Loire and our campsite. The campsite didn’t open til three so we had an hour to kill so we retraced our steps back to the river, crossed the bridge over to Sully-sur-Loire opposite and parked in front of the magnificent chateau overlooking the river. We wandered into the grounds to admire the building and then followed a path by the side of a lake and into woodlands – it was all part of the chateau’s estate (Jardin et parc du Chateau de Sully-sur-Loire) and it was lovely. It was nice to stretch all of our legs and have a good wander – though there were signs to watch out for vipers! We ended up in front of the chateau again and followed the Centre Ville signs into a pretty little town, full of shops. We stopped by a patisserie for a baguette and peered into shop windows, noting that the town had at least three opticians! We could now go and check in at the campsite, which we duly did and found a nice little pitch looking towards Sully between the trees. We set up home, sorted out the laundry and gave the Van a quick clean – grit seems to be a problem at the moment, sticking to the soles of our shoes and getting traipsed into the Van – and did a quick inventory of what food we’ve got (we have got boxes for overflow food). The sun finally appeared, a bright red ball sinking behind the trees, the first we had seen of it all day.
https://www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/sully-sur-loire-16023.htm
Darkness fell around 6.30 and it was quite chilly. We turned the heat on in the Van and made tea -then did a few sorties to the laundry room. We are spending a couple of nights here, so we can have a slow morning and walk back into town for lunch and work from there.
