After another rainy night, we woke up to a sunny morning, ate, packed up and headed west to Sully-sur-Loire where we turned a corner and went wow! We really wanted to get some mileage under our belts and reach our friends, Bill and Ang on Wednesday, so we only stopped long enough to gaze upon the chateau for a little while and take a few photos.
Then we stayed on the south-east side of the Loire and travelled the minor roads past Gien down to Chatillon-sur-Loire where we then followed the Canal lateral la Loire south through Cosne Cours-sur Loire, Sancerre and finally at la Charite-sur-Loire we crossed to the other side of the Loire. We lunched in the car park after a stroll around town, then we drove in to Nevers wondering why there was still no traffic or people anywhere. There were a number of large supermarkets, but everything was shut. The only thing open was McDonalds!! So we popped in for the usual drink and internet access.
Driving west past more fields of rape, we started to see some hills at last. We stopped in Chateau-Chinon for a stroll and managed to buy some milk. Then we drove up to a campsite near St Leger-de-Fougeret. It was a rather pretty stop overlooking a trout pond and we were the only campers there. For the first time, we got the chairs out on the grass and read for a while before heating up some soup and then playing a three hour long game of Scrabble. I’m very pleased to say that I won by 97 points, probably not through any skill but because I picked up the z, x, q, k and the 2 blanks……..
After a beautiful sunset we were disappointed to be awoken by another rainy day. Dang! But we can’t let the weather spoil our journey, so Rodney, me, my now very colourful buttocks and Eileen set off for Autun. It’s probably a very lovely town on a sunny day, but we were a little miserable as we were soaked wandering up to the cathedral through the winding streets. We spent an hour in the Le Clerc supermarket to dry off, as well as stock up on cheeses, bonbons, wine and a huge wooden tray of strawberries. A ‘pommy picnic’ was next on the agenda. We parked opposite another Chateau Sully and enjoyed a fresh baguette with meats and cheeses, whilst sitting inside Eileen and peeking out through the rain at the lovely chateau.
