Most of you probably know that there are floods in France. During the week I've seen houses sorrounded by water and picnic-areas covered by river. Today we drove to Fontevraud Abbey
http://www.fontevraud.fr/en/
along the riverside and saw more damages floods have done. Otherwise Loire valley is really beautiful. There are small villages or maybe towns and endless vineyards and of course other kind of farming (some cows and sheep, asparagus and wheat) between those villages.

Because we didn't have any schedule, Anne took a route with small, curvy roads. It took a little longer but I had many things to see and to ask. La Possonnière, Saint-Jean-de-Croix, Saumur, Montsoreau and so on. Narrow streets, light brown houses built of stone, medieval churches, small restaurants and of course at least one bakery/village. French people usually buy fresh bread every day. Well, for breakfast you can toast yesterdays bread, but otherwise you always get a new one. Anne told me that in Montjean, where she lives, there are two bakerys: one is closed on Monday, the other on Wednesday, so people get their daily bread.

But back to the road. As I mentioned, we didn't have any schedule, so after about 40 minutes drive, Anne suggested that we would go and see the Brissac castle. It's one of few castles there someone still lives. The family have lived in their castle for 500 hudred years. Present owners have wineyard and of course tourism. You can have guided tour in castle and after that taste homemade rosé-wine and jams. And yes there is a small shop, so you can take some home too. Anne bought jams and I got one jar.



After our shopping in Brissac castle, we continued our trip along the river. We stopped for lunch to one of those small villages. Finally we got to the Abbey. It has very long history, first as benedictin abbey, after revolution as prison and now a popular tourist sight. There has been many reparations but you can still imagine nuns and monks going around. This abbey was one of the first abbeys where there lived both men and women. And it was led by abbess. Famous king Richard the Lionheart was buried to this abbey.












We had a long day, but it wasn't over yet. After we got back home, Anne got a message from my daughter's hostfamily: they had also got home from their visit to Angers. So it was time to say goodbye to Anne's husband and their dog and take my things with me. Anne took me to La Pommeraye because I was supposed to spend the last night with my daughter and her hostfamily. Anne stayed for the aperitif and we had very nice conversation about how important this kind of international co-operation is.
We had a long dinner with pasta bolognese and it was already almost Sunday when we went to bed.