La Charité-sur-Loire

First, last night’s dinner…lovely little, slightly bird-like, woman was our hostess, and there was one other man also staying and having dinner. There were several others, but not dining (they appeared at breakfast)…we were in this beautiful ancient house - pre revolution (i.e. late 1700s) and will add photo - Amr was drooling over the chair but that wasn’t as old! Anyway, we started with a large bowl of lentil and vegetable soup (also with ham)…delicious, but it could quite happily have been my whole meal! But of course it continued - a plate of fish, with a tarragon sauce and carrots and potatoes, a cheese course and a dessert of semolina with fruit….I’ll have to do a heck of a lot walking to not gain weight!! Anyway, it was lovely, and also breakfast with the usual fresh croissants and coffee etc etc…

So we set off, knowing this was the longest day so far. And I was mentally writing this as we were walking, a beautiful,calm, easy even if long walk…as the first half, or maybe third was just gorgeous - the usual expanses of vineyards (yes, vineyards today), drooping sunflowers, corn and stubble or ploughed fields as we walked along gentle paths, and then went into forests. The forest walking was gentle as it was shady and mostly level with small ups and downs. It was a serious forest area, and we passed a sawmill, and passed many huge piles of logs waiting to be hauled away….BUT it went on and on, and the shade became unrelenting sun, and it is a hot day…

We stopped at approximately half way for a break and lunch and felt rejuvenated, but suddenly the last 10 kms seemed endless (to me), I think Amr was fine! I have to admit that my SI joints were killing me - my legs, hips and shoulders were fine…I did some forward folds to stretch them from time to time, and we got here fine. Actually it was funny, as we were in the town, which is larger than most from the last few days, and we saw a bar that was open and Amr said let’s have a beer here, and I said let’s get near the hotel (which we knew was on this street), and there was our hotel “Mille et une Feuilles” ..so we each had an enormous beer, checked in and now have had showers, done washing and feel revived!

Today was a lovely walk really, despite my complaints…it is as far as we will be walking, so I will accommodate and am very positive! But I may take some prophylactic anti-inflammatories! Now off to explore and fine the Loire!! We have never seen it before, and we need to find a little place for dinner as not included tonight…life is good!Read more