Wild Thing (Loire)

An intriguing title, n’est-ce pas?  Alright, I’ll tell you early, it was a hit by The Trogs back in the day and that beautiful riff has been re-used by many other other musos.  But I digress.  We visited some Troglodyte settlements.  Eventually, we’ll get there, but back to the beginning of the day.

Loire Valley:  Usse,  Saumar and the Troglodyte settlements

I slept.  OMG, I slept for 7 hours straight.  Heaven.

Then the search for the boulangerie for breakfast.  Jayne and I left Cait asleep in bed (a thirteen hour sleep, awesome).  We didn’t think we’d be gone that long.  Into the car, we drove to the boulangerie at Gizeux.  Sadly, closed on Tuesday.  The next recommended one was at a village called Briel.  That didn’t exist according to out GPS, but there was Brielle les Pins close by, so we headed for there.  It was larger than we thought, but the boulangerie proved evasive.  We drove through town and then up and down every side street.  No luck.  In a most uncharacteristic move for a male, I stopped for directions … sort of, I made Jayne ask a kid waiting for the school bus.  He informed us that there was NO boulangerie in the village. What? This is UNFRENCH.  We later discovered that the village we were seeking was Briel.

Jayne’s guide suggested we head to Vernoil, a village much closer to home.  Success.  Croissant, pan-au-chocolat and baguette tradition.  We were back home in just under an hour!  A nice drive that would have taken 15 minutes had we gone straight there.

I was a bit worried about the build-up we had given Cait around the croissant and bread in France.  We rarely eat croissant in Australia because, well, they are average and don’t measure up to the genuine product.  She took her first mouthful of real croissant and as she began to eat her eyes went wide.  Jayne asked had we built it up too much?  “Oh, no way”, was the reply, “I understand what you were saying now”.  She has now had bread products at home spoilt forever.  I know I asked this question last year, but why can’t we make bread like the French back in Oz?

Sated, it was time to explore chateau country.  As has been a time-honoured tradition, Jayne had sorted out the itinerary and off we went.  First stop, the Chateau Usse, the castle of Sleeping Beauty.  You’ll never guess - it was just like a castle from a fairy tale and they had rooms set out to re-tell the tale.  What’s to say?  Check out the pictures.  This castle is said to have been the inspiration for the Disney logo.

Nice hat.

Briar Rose?

Next was the Chateau Saumur, the major draw-card of the area.  As we were nearing the chateau, Jayne suggested we take the opportunity to park the car in an under utilised car park and walk the rest of the way.  This was a good idea from an exercise perspective.  The chateau car park was empty, but we got some much needed exercise and it was steep climb on foot.  The castle holds the original museum from the town and while interesting, isn’t necessarily in keeping with the castle or its history, which, curiously, is what we had expected.  In terms of historic sites, it is beautiful, but what it has to offer is, well, underwhelming.  From the outside it is visually spectacular.  There is precious little inside the chateau that relates to its actual history.  Major opportunity missed. 

We then went in search of a Troglodyte settlement and while there were many caves carved into the limestone cliffs, the actual settlement proved as evasive as the morning’s boulangerie.  After a number of false starts we made it.  Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would have said, both the trog sites we visited were  privately owned.  One was a professional tourist site, the other was a backyard number.  Well, in truth, they were both in the backyard.  Anyway, Cait informed me that troglodyte was more than a derogatory expression and that they were a part of the missing link the evolutionary process.  Google dear reader and learn – but first listen to the song.  Wild thing, you make my heart sing.

And Tolkien thoughts hobbits were special.

And so we entered into battle with the fast-driving French and headed home to La Croix.  Tomorrow we are exploring more grands chateaux in other parts of the Loire.