CENTRAL LOIRE VALLEY

SULLY SUR LOIRE

May 2018

To orientate myself and others I have prepared this map of my expedition that I'll also use in later posts - it shows the places at which I stayed and my travel direction.

Early Summer Route - 2018

I decided not to visit Orléans because of the congestion that undoubtedly clogs the city most of the time and certainly on 8 May when there is an annual festival celebrating Joan of Arc's triumph in relieving the English siege in 1428 (the first French victory after their disastrous defeat at Agincourt 13 years earlier).

Instead I cut across country to Sully opposite which is the small town of St Pere-sur-Loire and the campsite “Jardin de Sully”. This was somewhat larger and more pretentious than “La Poterie” but comfortable and very well situated. There was no direct access to the river bank but the water could be seen through trees in the grounds.

Well, its hard to see the river but it was there, through the trees

Here it is with a view of Saint Ythier College on the left bank

The town of Sully developed at this place because it was one of the few at which the river could be forded. This naturally made it strategically important and the site was fortified from early historical times with the oldest remains still in existence dating from 1102.

The castle was seriously damaged by floods in 1363 and the owner at the time appointed Raymond du Temple, designer of the Louvre, to plan and oversee its restoration.      In 1602 it was purchased by Maximilian de Béthune, Henry IV 's Finance Minister and the first Duc de Sully who started a process of expansion and conversion to a palatial residence continued by others in later centuries and culminating in public ownership after the second world war.

Here are some photos taken from different viewpoints.

From the Park

Over the Moat from the Esplanade beside the river

From the Town

The land upriver of Sully is densely cultivated now but was vulnerable to regular springtime floods in years gone by – no doubt enriching the soil with deposits and minerals carried down from the interior.      This transformation was created by a levée on each bank I estimated to be some 25 feet above the water level in May 2018.

There is now a surfaced roadway along the top of the southern Levée running eastwards for about 8km from the Chateau for the use of pedestrians, cyclists and approved but strictly limited “riverains” as the owners of the one guest house and four or five farms beside it are called.

Voie Verte on the top of the Levée

I made an expedition along this part of the “Loire a Velo” route, continuing on a minor road to the small village of Lion-en-Sullias and back along a slightly larger road with very little traffic as this part of my ride was during the traditional French lunch hour when very nearly everyone is occupied with their vittles. I returned to the levée along a single track lane in order to get back to the Chateau without going through the town.

There were several places with pleasing views and spring flowers as the following photos show.

A Bend in the Loire with Dampierre Nuclear Power Station in the Background

Dampierre is one of several such stations along the Loire, sited there to use the river water for condensing exhaust steam from the turbines, and has four 937 MW reactors.      Construction was started in 1974 and electricity first produced six years later. So that reactor has been in operation for 38 of its 40 year design lifetime and will be one of the first in France to be closed.     As in Britain, measures to extend the life are being taken but the cost of eventual de-commissioning and disposal of irradiated materials is the source of much controversy.

France's nationalised electricity supplier – EDF – has made some financial provision for these closures but critics assert the final bill will be much higher than has so far been allowed.       That was one of the reasons EDF's own Finance Director resigned a year or two ago when he thought the company's commitment to finance and build the next generation reactors at Hinkley Point in England would create too much debt for the company and market to bear.

Gorse and Mayflower Bloom together

I was in clover here

I also made a couple of explorations by car whilst staying at the Jardin-de-Sully site but the “Loire a Velo” route to the east ran some distance from the river through rather open agricultural fields that I found less interesting so I didn't attempt that on the bike.

CENTRAL LOIRE VALLEY

AMBOISE AND BEAUGENCY

April 2018

LEAVING MARCILLY

I ended up staying nearly three weeks at Marcilly, mainly because of the van problems.

Initially, the only help the van dealer provided was to say they would ship a new hitch and stabiliser unit to me (at my expense). In due course that arrived bringing with it a manual explaining its design and installation in more detail than I'd ever seen before.

The manual very heavily emphasised the risks of the unit failing to work properly if the tow-ball wasn't fully compatible and

the kit supplied included a new ball meeting the requirements – but it wouldn't fit my car because it was too short to clear the rear bodywork.

The manual also confirmed design and manufacture of the ball should conform to ISO 50 (nominally having a 50mm diameter) and should not be worn to less than 49.61 mm. The Subaru ball supplied with the car when both were new was hard-stamped accordingly and having learned the French for a Vernier Caliper (Pied a Coulisse) I found an electronic one in a hardware store on the Industrial Estate in Dreux. Use of that confirmed the minimum diameter of the Subaru ball was 49.74 mm. So that didn't seem to be the source of the problem.

The site maintenance engineer and I then tried fitting the new hitch on the car's ball without fitting the hitch to the caravan, and compared the position of the colour indicators, allegedly showing whether or not the hitch and ball were properly connected, with the equivalent indications on the original hitch fitted to the caravan. 

There was no visible difference.

I reported these findings to the UK dealer and then had a long telephone conversation with the new workshop manager appointed during the time I was at Marcilly.          He explained the colour indicators were not a fully reliable method of confirming security of the connection and neither was my physical test of trying to lift the rear of the car by heaving upwards on the van's tow-bar though that thinking was on the right lines.           But I might have just been lifting the downward weight of the van, resulting in the rear of the car rising on its springs without moving up enough to actually tension the springs via the tow-bar.

The new manager had now introduced a new briefing instruction to be given by the despatch assistant when customers take delivery of a van emphasising the only foolproof way of checking hitch security is to lift the rear of the car by winding the van up on its jockey wheel.

In the meantime the site maintenance engineer had made a good job of re-wiring the 13-pin electrical plug and using the now recommended method of checking, the van duly followed the car without a problem on a tentative test drive – and has done so on all subsequent journeys.

So, it seems the only real problem was an inadequate briefing when the van was delivered coupled with unreliable visual indicators of connection security.         

I now think the latter was probably more of a problem with the Subaru than the Mercedes, as the initial spring rate is softer to give it more off-road capability.        I hope to get a price refund for the new but unused hitch and stabiliser unit.

POSITION AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE CENTRAL LOIRE VALLEY

The source of the Loire is in the Cévennes (part of the Massif Central) not far from Lyons in the Rhone Valley and over 1,000 km from where it debouches into the Atlantic west of Nantes.

The section from Tours to the river-mouth is roughly one third of this distance passing westwards through the region I visited during my first land tour in 2015.        So this year I decided to go farther upriver and have a look at that part of France now known as “Centre-Val- de-Loire” (a huge region roughly circular with a 400-500 km diameter south of Paris).

Overview Map

Here the land slopes gently east-west and the river passes in a huge semi-circle with a diameter of about 150km centred on a city called Vierzon having Tours at its western end and Nevers in the east.

This is the area famous for its rich History, Chateaux and Vineyards, including such well-known names as Tours, Blois, Orléans and Sancerre.

Whilst fascinated by historical events and the benefits of viniculture I was though as much interested in the prospect of being near water with scope for some some gentle, traffic-free cycling, as I was in traipsing around busy cities and the domestic circumstances of ultra-rich people in the past.

AMBOISE and MOSNES

Having enjoyed Tours Castle and Fonteyvraud Abbey in 2015 I decided to start east of there near the city of Amboise and chose a small campsite at Mosnes village called “La Poterie”. This was delightful and operated by a very friendly couple who always had a cheery word and smile for campers and passing cyclists alike.

Cyclists and campers were often the same because the “Loire a Velo” cycle route passes immediately outside the camp entrance within a few metres of the river itself.     Several expeditionary cyclists carrying all their possessions pitched their bivouac tents at “La Poterie” for an overnight stay.

Looking Upriver from the Camp Entrance

And Looking Downriver

The site was very small, perhaps 40 pitches and a handful of chalets, but had all the necessary facilities – ablutions, washing machine and drier, waste disposal etc.

The site also had WIFI access on each pitch included in the overnight fee, and arranged delivery of “Une Demi-Baguette” and “Un Pain au Chocolat” every morning. Together with French butter and a large cup of “Café au Lait” I prepared myself this made a wonderful breakfast leaving me satisfied until evening dinner.

The nearest supermarket was in Amboise, that has a Chateau, but not one in which I had a particular interest. Otherwise it was a busy regional centre with lots of traffic and too many people.

I did explore by car a few times and went for three or four cycle rides up and down river on the Voie Verte sections of the “Loire-a-Velo” route during which I took these few photos.      

The Loire here is pretty wide

And has many beaches created from sands brought down during springtime floods

The rides were all pretty short though because soon the cycle route had to use multi-purpose roads and riding along with cars whizzing past every so often doesn't have the same appeal.

BEAUGENCY

This is another old city with its own Chateau but I chose to go there because it had a campsite by the river and I hoped to find another Voie Verte section of the cycle route.

But that didn't work out so well because it turned out much of the route here was again on roads used by other traffic.

A travelling fair set up on the river bank on the city side was another deterrent.      The campsite on my side was very open and contiguous with a small golf course in the same grounds with both being fully visible from the fairground.

So I was mildly concerned about van security in these circumstances – I had no evidential reason for this but it would have been so easy for one of the “Travellers” to drive across the bridge and whisk my van away that I decided not to risk leaving it for longer than a quick trip to the supermarket.

My only record of this place is one photo I took because I liked the contrast of the pink blossom against the green background.

Contrasting Colours at Beaugency