“Along the rounded hills
and the noble vales the
chateaux are strewn like
processional alters…”
Charles Peguy
Montrichard was a pretty little town with a pretty little beach with sand and sunshades on the banks of the Loire, but it was originally a fortress town for defence.
How civilised to have a local beach, and not have to drive hundreds of miles to find an ocean. Tres practique.
We had stumbled across the shore and every aspect of it shouted 'holidays,' but we could not stay because we had to make our next destination, and were only rewarded by straining necks and the promise of return.
It was a ridiculous idea as life has very few return journeys in it.
The weather was dull, so the beach was empty, which made me feel better, as we got into another one way system, following all the white arrows and signs marked 'tous direction.'
We got a look of the town but was spat out on the other side and there was no point in using the sun to navigate as there wasn't any.
A diversion sign to the Château Montpoupon yielded nothing as I had the map, which I turned in all directions as we followed every sign; there was no one around to ask, so we took what looked like a diversion.
It was a fortress from the 13th century guarding the road to Aquitaine, converted after the Hundred Years’ War into an early Renaissance palace.
We were becoming hunters; quick to turn, and quick to spot signs, at a distance. Ironically, Château de Montpoupon houses a museum of hunting, but we couldn't find that either.
“There! There is a sign! Follow that one!” I yelled to Tom as we turned even deeper into generally poor farmland covered with forest. Deeper and deeper, into some infertile countryside, until we were all alone in more rain, until the there was nothing - not even a châteaux sign.
We turned back and drove the 20 minutes in silence, as no one wanted to take the blame.
“This was a waste of time, and someone put the châteaux sign up for fun,” said Tom, driving at a reasonable and calm speed for once.
“Don't be so ridiculous, who would do such a thing?” I completely agreed with him, but I didn't want to compound the act as we had plenty more driving to do. This was no time to lose faith in humanity, or we would never leave the péage again.
We pointed the car towards Châteaux Chenonceau, which we didn't know would hook us right back into to the hunt, and this newly emerging addiction.