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| Looking across to the left bank of the Loire to a cute village |
It was a nice fine day for a bike ride. We have been considering coming to Saumur or
nearby for a longer stay of somewhere around six to nine months. Our current host has a house in a small
village called St-Clement-des-Levées which is about 12 kilometres from
Saumur. The cycle trail goes past it so
it seemed like a good destination.
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| La maison that we were looking for |
We rented bikes, got directions and headed off down the
right bank of the Loire. When we got to
St Clement we were not sure where the street was so we rode down one of them and
just as we were about to look up Google maps, an elderly man came up and asked
if we were lost. In my broken French I told
him the street we were looking for.
After he heard me say the street name (my pronunciation was nothing like
his) he told us where to go. He wanted
to know where we came from and whether we had friends at the house (it turned
out that he knew le jardinier – gardener – who owned it). After an au revoir or two we found the house
which was over the road from the Loire and has gardens on either side of it.
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| One of the gardens |
Lunch was at Les Rosiers sur Loire a few kilometres further
on, where we had a rather nice Croque Madame.
Thank goodness we consumed a good number of calories as our 30 kilometre
ride turned into a 50 kilometre ride.
Sometimes the signage for the cycle path (Route de Velo) is less than
optimal and somewhere along the way on the outskirts of Saumur, I missed one of
the signs, so we ended up going around
the outskirts of Saumur adding a few kilometres on to our ride. Google maps came to rescue in the end and we
easily found our way back.
It was very nice being in the fresh air even though it was mild
rather than warm. As we thought we had
deserved a little treat we called into our favourite bar and had a drink sitting
in the Place de Pierre until we were driven back to the apartment by the onset
of some rain.
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| Two years ago this was all water with a couple of boats tied to a little jetty |
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| Simple beauty |
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