Saint-Florent-sur-Cher

A perfect start…a taxi arrived on the dot of 9 at the hotel to take us on the first leg of our walk today (dropped us off at La Chapelle St Ursin) and took the bags on to today’s accommodation. So we set off, not too hot yet, and a little breeze and some very welcome forest walks. There was a bit of suburban walking at first, and an industrial zone. One memorable part was walking past a munitions factory…a huge area, with barbed wire fences for miles…anyway, at one stage we heard what sounded to us like a shark alarm, and we laughed and said they’re about to blow us up…and sure enough there WAS the sound of a huge explosion…but on we went and came to Villeneuve Sur Cher, about 9 kms. No cafes open, but we found a shaded picnic table by the river for lunch…perfect.

Then we had to strike out from the chemin. Our lodging tonight is in St Florent sur Cher, about 5 kms off route, and we set off along the road - only made the day’s total to 16 kms, and this was planned, not a surprise! It was getting hot by now, so we were SO glad to arrive at the town…a woman stopped her car to ask us if we were walking the chemin de Compostelle and was quite excited as she had walked parts of it, and even offered us a lift, but we were almost there, she said take a left down the hill and it sounded easy. All we knew was that we were staying at a gîte called Le Faisanderie.

That was when the complications started (we probably should have taken the lift!)…we turned left into rue de la faisanderie, and it was a street with houses, but no gîte…we asked some people and they said it was a long way (our hearts dropped)…but she only meant about 10 mins walk thank goodness, but we ploughed on getting discouraged as no sign…another woman said yes, keep on, in the forêt, and we followed the path and found a beautiful huge estate, with closed gates, no sign “Le Faisanderie”….at this point I sat in the shade under a tree, and Amr called the number of the place…yes, this was the house, were there animals - yes we’d seen 2 horses wandering round, and some dogs…yes, this was right - shed phone her son in law who was minding it with her daughter (she herself was on holiday)…so Roman came and welcomed us, lovely and even spoke very good English, and Anna his partner who is German and an English teacher. She is cooking dinner tonight.

But the amazing thing is the accommodation. That is - ours. It is a huge estate with garden, woods, various separate buildings, animals and 2 peacocks just walked past as I’m writing this. (At the moment we are sitting beside the pool, having cooled off with a beer)! There is a small row of bedrooms like a gîte, which is apparently full tonight. But our place is a little separate gypsy caravan!! It is quite amazing as you will see…tiny and perfect…complete with bathroom, and even a kitchen area! Another unique experience….so happy!Read more