First stop Candes-Saint-Martin, one of the French ‘beau villages’, and at the confluence of the Vienne and Loire rivers. Lovely colourful mudflats too!

Checked out the church, whose statues all had their heads removed (maybe during the French Revolution?).

Evidence of Gallo-Roman occupation was found in 19th century excavations, particularly in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace which crowns the hill. The village takes its name – and its main claim to fame- from the church which took the place of the 4th century monastery where St Martin, Bishop of Tours and ‘Apostle to the Gauls’, died in 397.

Next to Fontevraud abbey – thirteen hectares of ancient buildings sitting within a lush landscape. At the heart of all this is the main priory, which links the Abbey’s most beautiful buildings – the magnificent abbey church, which overlooks the entire site, the Romanesque kitchens, the chapter house, the cloisters and their gardens regularly adorned by contemporary artworks.  Droney took a lovely pic of the huge estate. 

The octagonal form of this building and its roof prickling with pointy chimneys and fish-scale slating, have been a subject of much reflection for historians. The ‘kitchens’ of Fontevraud were in fact a smokehouse, where fish (mostly salmon, then abundant in the Loire) was prepared, constituting the nuns’ staple diet – Fontevraud smoked salmon.

Along the Loire river and its tributaries, galleries have been carved into the hillsides made of limestone. Horizontal troglodytism exists in different regions of France, but there is an extraordinary concentration of sites near Saumur and Chinon. Between Montsoreau and Saumur, the hillside is crammed with caves. We visited 2 ‘caves de vin’…one with nimble goats and John, entertaining us more than the vignieron 🙂

…..the next one though was fab …. La “Grande-Vignolle” in Turquant. We got 3 bottles of delicious red to take with us and it was a great example of a ‘seigneurial’ troglodytic manor. 

Arrived late arvo into Angers, settled into accommodation, got Vietnamese ’emporter’ (takeaway) for dinner and flaked!