We visited Chedigny in 2014 and it was the week before the festival. As you said, the roses are glorious. We have been seeing lots of roses around where we have been as well. And, yes stunning wisteria. We are not big gardeners I am afraid and keep it simple, but I do love enjoying the handiwork of others.
Lovely photos.

Beautiful photos. I have fond memories of Loches; thanks for bringing those back.

YankGal it is a pleasure and nice to hear from you and sorry I didn’t acknowledge you in a previous post.

Cheska, we followed you to Chedigny a day later.

This is the second time we almost met Fodors' two most intrepid Australian travelers, because in 2014 we missed Rhon by about ^a week.

That white wisteria was a knockout!

Coquelicot we are heading to Chinon today🤣

Have fun in Chinon. There's so much to see in this area. We want to go back to Chedigny today.

No apologies necessary- you have a lot of responses to go through! Have a glass of lovely wine in Chinon for me. More memories there, same trip; our first field trip in my study abroad program in Paris was to the Loire. I have been back, but even that was decades ago. Your report makes me want to plan another visit soon.

A lovely morning in Chinon despite the late start. We walked down to the town rather than the Accenture as we did need the walk. A lovely view of the castle and the streets have gorgeous houses with beautiful courtyard gardens. We didn’t visit the Castle and the Troglodytes were closed.

After a reasonable coffee we noticed a shop on the corner full of homewares and other items. Of course I was just going in for a look. I saw a small bag ( pouchette) that I thought our daughter would love. My husband took a photo and the owner came over and said no photos. While we forgot to ask first, he explained that we wanted to send our daughter a photo for her to pick a colour. The woman then took two of them outside so we could get a photo that was true to colour. While this was happening, I walked into another room and saw a gorgeous salad bowl. Also purchased some salad servers for our daughter, working on the theory that I might get my favourite ones back. Our daughter pick the green pouchette.

Tonight we ate at a Tapas restaurant in La place Plumereau. Not Tapas how we or the Spanish know it but ok. My husband enjoyed the oven baked Camembert with oil and things. I’m not a fan of cheese so he had it all to himself. I call this his artery harding meal. I’m a sucker for anything rhubarb and enjoyed the crumble with strawberry and rhubarb. A little sweet, however the cream helped.

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Chinon
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Beautiful courtyard
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So pretty
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Beautiful
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Artery Harding meal 🤣
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Of course my dessert must be low fat as it was full of fruit 🤣
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Our daughters new pouchette.
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The orange one is my new salad bowl.
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Lovely pictures of the town - and I love your purchases!

I agree. We enjoyed Chinon when we visited in 2014. Have you been to Abbaye de Fontevraud ? I cannot remember. We enjoyed it as well.

We have decided to leave Tours a couple of days earlier than planned to visit Le Mans.

We have really enjoyed our 24 days here and managed to see every place that we wanted to see, with a few extras. It has been fantastic to do this at a leisurely pace. Tours has been the right place for us, and even though the accommodation has its problems, it is a good space. My husband didn’t think he would be doing minor maintenance on holidays 🤣.

While Tours isn’t the friendliest town ( no one says Bonjour when out walking) we have found staff in restaurants, shops etc to be friendly. We have only come across a few English speakers, and that as helped our limited French. We do try though. I would describe Tours as a small city environment rather than a town.

The Loire Valley has been beautiful and more than I expected. It has been lovely to catch up with a couple of Aussies that I’ve met through FB, who have been generous with their time and hospitality.

We will be in Le Mans for two days, and then drive to Auray for nineteen days. It is different for us to stay in a smaller town population 12, 000. I decided on this town as a base after reading a blog about the area. Really looking forward to seeing this part of France.

Thanks to all of you who have come along for the ride as it has been a lot of fun.

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I was surprised to see this type of palm as I thought it would be too cold.
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When you have the time to walk around the streets after dinner you stumble around corners and see pockets of colour.
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I have never seen this type of tree before and named Mexicain fremontodendron.
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Another pretty area.
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Anyone interested in renting ?

Thanks for sharing, Cheska. I think many of us would enjoy setting up a longer base as you have.

I've so enjoyed reading about your time in Tours - I hope you continue this trip report to cover the next places you'll be visiting!

We based in Tours for 3 weeks last spring. No Crit’Air needed there, we routed around the Paris ZFE and had no issues. Our fuel light drama ended at an Intermarché pump, my card worked after a small test charge. Chenonceau was heaving by 11, so go at opening. Best coffee I found was a little specialty cafe just off Place Plumereau, otherwise I ordered café allongé. For rentals I pack a peeler and a knife sharpener.

I remember reading this trip report when it was happening, but what a treat to see it come up again. It was as much fun to read this time as the first time. You're a delightful writer and the photos add a lot.

Coquelicot I have enjoyed re reading it too. I had forgotten so much.
We are busy packing up for a month trip to Europe as we leave on Friday to travel to Sydney, and depart Saturday for Rome. It will be a trip that is completely opposite to what we normally do, as there will be two and three night stops until we get on the boat in Basel for the eight day river cruise.

I think I’m organised 🤣🤣🤣

On slower days I studied with a free cna practice test with answers. Handy on my phone, and the questions felt very realistic.

Cheska, what a great trip you had and what a wonderful report. You two really got around with a terrific itinerary and I am glad to read that it went mostly well. Congrats on both of your stamina! Hope that you have displayed some of your best shots matted and framed up on your walls. One of my faves was that purple flower close-up.

We leave tomorrow for that area, a week in Loches followed by a few weeks in Tours. My last Principal-boss lives very close to us and our mutual final school before retirement. He and his partner just had us over for lunch-plus-tips. That Provencal-born partner is the Head of French at the University of Toronto and was seconded to Tours last summer to teach a course. As 'FTOttawa' has noted above, Tours is the epicenter for the most perfectly-spoken French. As my wife hails from Montreal, we she should have little problem.
Our city's baseball team has just made the playoffs and may just end up playing in the World Series. I'd love to watch that on TV and have thus contacted an amateur baseball team (les Coyotes) in the rough and rowdy suburb 'Joue les Tours'. Maybe they will be having some possible watching parties?

All the Best for Rome, Basel and beyond. Maybe check out 'Taverna Agape' in pza Simeone (near Piazza Navona) in Rome?
I am done. the departures