I booked (and paid for) a river-view pitch at Chantipie (now known as Huttopia Saumur) at the exorbitant price of €29 per night. For this I was roundly criticised by one and all. After what seemed a long 150 miles towing, we hauled up the hill to the campsite. Glenda tried her very best negotiating skills to try and get the management to accept our camping vouchers in payment for our river-view pitch. After a three hour battle during which Brexit was mentioned several times as were “liberté” “égalité” and “fraternité”, she had to concede defeat. However she managed to transmogrify our booked pitch for one a row back from the front with a view down an access path. Her expression was “half the view for half the price!”.
Nice one. Now we won’t go bankrupt – at least not this week! We can still get the full view by moving our chairs onto a vacant front pitch!
Sunrise this morning from our front window was pretty spectacular too…
Today is the first exposure we have had to proper shops on this trip. (I use the word “we” very loosely in this context!) Saumur seemed delightfully quiet and peaceful with relatively few tourists milling about.
While Glenda hit the shops (conveniently with no money or credit card!!!), I circled the town centre by car 23 and a half times before I found an escape route but this was soon blocked by a massive coach stuck under a low bridge. Engine off and chat with the locals in the cars in front for 15 minutes. Sadly, there was no cafe at that particular point but, unbeknownst to me at the time, there was one the other end of the coach which could be my most favouritely named establishment ever…
After parking the car on the outskirts of town, I climbed the 2 million and 4 steps up to the front door of Saumur’s chateau. Quite a spectacular view back over the river and bridge…
Between the castle and the city is the Maison des Compagnons. It is one of the only surviving buildings of the ancient quarter from the 15th century. Surviving, but much restored!
Apparently this building is home to l’Association Ouvrière des Compagnons du Devour de Tour de France. However, I suspect this is not a lot to do with cycle racing!!! And probably more to do with tradesmen’s associations and guilds throughout France. But that’s a bit of a guess!
We had arranged to meet later under the colourful umbrellas for a coffee.
Un bonne idée! Except there were two lots of the perishing things – situated about 10 minutes walk apart!
Fortunately we both chose the same lot!
The local church – as in local to our coffee stop was St Peter’s. Originally built in the 12th century, the facade was reconstructed in the 17th century (probably to meet the new EU standards). Magnificent internally:
I put that photo in specially for Geoff – who is something of an expert on cathedrals and big churches of the world. I hope he’s reading!
We eventually left Saumur without a single purchase! Excellent budget-wise – but not for long! As you may discover in the next exciting instalment…