The Loire and Dordogne 2026 - Troglodytes and sea shell facades

Tuesday 22nd September - Montsoreau, Saumur.  Maine et Loire
 
A moving day.
 
We left Bracieux about 10am and drove to Chateau Villandry, which is World renowned for its gardens.
 
It was a nice easy journey and parking was a doddle as one of the group had told us exactly where to park. We had a coffee with John and Jen then walked round the gardens. With my OCD it was all amazing, set out geometrically and every plant and bush trimmed perfectly. The kitchen gardens were split up into large squares with vegetables interspersed with flowers. I can’t help but reiterate just how immaculate they were, there was hardly a leaf or a petal out of place!!  Round the edge of the gardens are some raised gardens and a walkway from which you get a great view of the gardens. Apparently there is a team of 10 gardeners but there wasn’t one to be seen - I reckoned that there is really a group of fairies that come out at night and do all the work 🤣🧚🧚‍♀️ We really loved the gardens and were so pleased we had visited. We didn’t go into the house as we had Rio with us.

The chateau is the last of the great Renaissance châteaux built along the Loire valley. Its history spans over eight centuries of military medieval origin, Renaissance elegance, 18th-century modifications, and 20th-century restoration. 
 
In the 12th century it was originally known as Colombiers and began its life as a fortified medieval stronghold.  

Jean le Breton, Minister of Finance to King Francis I, acquired the fortress in 1532. He demolished the medieval fortress except for the original central keep, constructing a new residence in the French Renaissance style. Having previously supervised the construction of Château de Chambord, Le Breton incorporated large windows, symmetrical arcades, and classical Italianate influences into Villandry. 

In 1754, the property was acquired by Michel-Ange de Castellane, the Marquis de Villandry and ambassador to the King. To match 18th-century architectural trends, he made extensive alterations: adding arcades to enclose the courtyard, installing French sash windows, and replacing the Renaissance grounds with an English-style landscape park.
 

Spanish physician Dr. Joachim Carvallo and his American wife, Ann Coleman, purchased the deteriorating estate in 1906. Carvallo gave up a research career in science to restore Villandry to its original Renaissance glory. He tore down the 18th-century facades and painstakingly recreated the 16th-century formal French Renaissance gardens using archival records and archaeological traces.
 

The estate remains privately owned by the Motse Carvallo family today and is preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site open to the public.
 
Back to Kiwi for a quick lunch before setting off for Montsoreau which isn’t far from Saumur. We had a good journey until we tried to turn right through a small village which had a no motorhome sign. Fortunately we were able to turn round and continue on a different route. However when we arrived at the campsite there was a car and caravan blocking the entrance so we had to continue on and turn round. Back at the site entrance the car and caravan were still there so we had to drive on and turn round yet again. On our next approach we were able to get in! 
 
We have a nice pitch under a lovely shady tree very close to the River Loire. We sat out and were soon joined by Liz and Kevin followed by Jen and John.

By a sheer coincidence,  some friends from home are also staying on the site in their caravan before heading home on Thursday, so we had dinner with them in the site restaurant. The menu was very small but the food was good and the company was excellent. See you back on Hayling Island, Bob and Ingrid 😍
 
I got a call while we were at Villandry to say that my glasses aren’t going to be ready for at least another week. I’m not going to make any comment!  😢
 
94 miles
What3words
restaurant.limelight.active

 

Wednesday 23rd September - Montsoreau, Saumur.  Maine et Loire
 
Rio decided, at 6am, that it was poo time!  To be fair he had eaten very late last night. I found myself doing the walk again!
 
We were going to the Rochemenier Troglodytique Museum with Liz, as Kevin was going off on his bike. However Google decided that we might like to take the scenic journey which wanted to take us down a 2.3 ton restricted road, needless to say we didn’t actually go down it!  I finally managed to find another route.
 
There are two types of troglodyte (cave dweller), one is the plains/lowland Troglodytes (dug vertically down into flat land) and cliff/hillside Troglodytes (cliff homes which have a visible exterior wall or door).

The Rochemenier Village is one of the best-preserved underground dwelling sites in Europe which was dug into the flat land.  The site features around 20 rooms open to the public, including living quarters, kitchens, stables, barns, and cellars across two separate historical farmsteads.  A completely subterranean chapel carved directly into the rock in the 16th or 17th century, used historically for worship or retreat. The rooms maintain a naturally steady temperature of roughly 12°C–14°C year-round, making them cool in summer and easy to warm in winter.  Rooms display authentic 19th and early 20th century furniture, farm implements, bread ovens, wine presses, and household tools showcasing rural Angevin life. 

 
Farmers excavated open-air courtyards (patios) in the soft rock and carved rooms laterally off these central pits.  The soft, porous rock is called falun, a local limestone composed of fossilised marine shells deposited millions of years ago when the sea covered the Anjou region. It was easy to carve out with simple hand tools.  The site was an active farming community. Excavations created liveable spaces while providing building material (stone and marl) to sell or improve nearby crop fields.  Cave dwellings in the area date back to the Middle Ages (around the 13th century), though most structures visible today were developed and expanded between the 16th and 19th centuries.  The last residents moved out of the troglodyte farms at Rochemenier in the early 1930s.  After the farms were abandoned as primary residences, parts of the caves were used for agricultural storage, wine aging, or livestock before being preserved and reopened as a museum in 1967.  While the historic museum farms were vacated in the 1930s, a few modernised troglodyte homes elsewhere in the wider village of Louresse-Rochemenier are still inhabited today.

Behind the campsite are some white cliffs with a few cliff homes in. 

 
Google managed to take us back the quick way which was right along the Saumur river front. It was really lovely. Saumur is on our list of places to visit next time!
 
Back at the site I had the washing to do whilst sorting out the mammoth Monday blog post which I did using my laptop outside under our lovely tree.

We went and had a cuppa with Ingrid and Bob before meeting up with most of the group for dinner in the restaurant.  I have to say that the food in the restaurant has been excellent. 
 
It was a lovely, but sad, evening saying goodbye to everyone.  It’s been a very social group, most of whom we will never meet again.

We managed to find diesel today at €2.39 (£2.05) which was very good as we have been hearing real horror stories about the price and lack of diesel.
 
50 miles
 
 
Thursday 24th September - Les Sables d'Olonne, Pays de la Loire
 
It was a sad departure from the campsite this morning. Quite a few people had already departed but we were a bit late as I just couldn’t wake up. I had had a bad dream and been shouting out in my sleep!  I was being chased by some fluffy slippers 🤣🤣
 
Liz and Kevin are staying for another night before heading back to Calais and then home.  We will miss all the group but them especially.  Rio is going to be so bored as he just loves Liz, she is definitely on his list of “very favourite people”! 
 
We had a two hour drive to Les Sables D’Olonne.  One town we went round was called Cholet which took me back to the 1970s and The Wombles with the housekeeper, Madame Cholet.  Bernard Cribbins voiced and narrated every character in the series. A great actor and someone I was very privileged to have met on several occasions.
 
Just outside Cholet we found a Lidl so I did a quick supermarket dash and we were on our way again.
 
Google got us to our aire, well almost as the road was closed.  We went round the other way but that was closed too, however we saw some other motorhomes parked up on some spare ground, so we pulled in and got a nice pitch on the edge facing a nice grassy area. In fact it was nicer than the official site which was closed. It did look as if a height barrier had been taken out to allow motorhomes in as the other site was closed.

After a bit of planning we walked a couple of hundred yards to a bus stop and a free shuttle bus took us into town.  It was 31 degrees!
 

I wanted to visit L’Ile Penotte, a neighbourhood which is famous for its house facades, doors, archways, and mailboxes decorated with intricate, multi-coloured mosaics crafted entirely from sea shells (oyster shells, scallops, mussels, periwinkles, and exotic shells).  The artwork was started in 1997 by local artist Danièle Arnaud-Aubin.

From there we walked to the promenade and had a drink at a sea front bar. Richard had a beer and I had a caramel ligeois which was huge!

The beach was really busy with people sunbathing and lots of people swimming.   Poor Rio looked on longingly but it was no dogs until October 1st and, to be honest, there was very little room, even for a small dog!  In years gone by, the Parisians would take the train and spend their holidays there.  Sadly some of the old buildings are now modern flats which rather spoilt the overall look.

We walked to a bus stop and caught the bus back, where we sat out under the awning as it was still so hot.

 

We will go back to Les Sables d’Olonne as there is still a lot more to see.
 
Les Sables d'Olonne is well known for the Vendee Globe, a solo, non-stop, unassisted round-the-world yacht race which is held every four years starting from Port Olona. It takes somrwhere between 65 and 90 days and was started by local sailor Philippe Jeantot in 1989. 
 
Ellen MacArthur was second in 2000–2001 and did it in 94 days and 4 hours.
Alex Thomson was second in 2016–2017 and third in 2012–2013.  In 2016-2017 he completed the race in  74 days and 19 hours.  
Mike Golding was third in 2004–2005.  He completed the race in 88 days, 15 hours. Notably, he managed to finish the final 500 miles of the race without a keel after it sheared off in the North Atlantic.
Pete Goss was fifth in 1996–1997.  Goss made history in 1997 as the first Briton to complete the Vendée Globe. He is best remembered for turning back into a hurricane force storm in the Southern Ocean to rescue French competitor Raphaël Dinelli, an act of heroism for which he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.
The other British man you may remember was Tony Bullimore who miraculously survived after capsizing in the 1996–1997 race.  It became one of the most famous rescue stories in maritime history.
 
121 miles
What3words
racked.clauses.tries