First, thank you to all of you who answered my questions and posted previous trip reports. DH and I are in our mid-sixties and don’t like rushing around too much. The heat wave slowed us down a little. We tried to do outside activities in the mornings before it got too hot. We found driving with Google Maps pretty easy. The exception was that If we took a wrong turn, we found it better to just find a place to turn around because Google would try to reroute us on a strange route.
Friday, May 22: We picked up a rental car in the Boulougne-Billancourt area after spending a few days at the French Open qualifying rounds.Our first stop was Domaine Chaumont-sur-Loire. We spent about 4 hours there and enjoyed it but it was too hot to view all the garden exhibits. We toured Les Caves Champignonnières Des Roches and loved it, even though we don’t understand French. They gave us a written explanation that was helpful. It was very interesting and cool in the caves! We had planned to stay in a hotel at Amboise but they suggested that we cancel because their air conditioning system had broken. We spent 3 nights in a gite near Blere and loved it!
Saturday, May 23: We had early tickets for Chenancoux. We walked around outside first. It was beautiful. We also enjoyed the inside. We had lunch there and arrived at Loches around 1:30. We got a map at the visitor center and walked to the old town. Our favorite thing there was the artist museum, especially the video explaining his work. The chateau was nice and the keep was okay.
Sunday, May 24: We drove to Amboise to arrive at Chateau Clos Luce by 9:30. We enjoyed walking around the grounds and visited the chateau as it got warmer outside. We picniced by the parking lot and left our car there, walking down to Amboise. It looked nice but I was happy we stayed at our gite instead. We went to the market and bought a large container of paella (thanks to other posters for mentioning it!) and some cherry tomatoes for dinner. The tomatoes in France have been delicious! We drove to Chedigny and walked around for a bit. It’s a beautiful town. We drove to Montresor and walked for a while on the Balcons del’indroisi. We parked at the ( closed) Proxi Market. It was a beautiful walk. We were too tired to walk further into the town. I realize that we could have gone to Chedigny and Montresor on Saturday but that would have been too much.
Monday, May 25: We sadly left our gite for our drive to Brantome. We stopped at Angles-sur-l’Anglin. This is a beautiful town with views of an old fortress above it. We went to the visitor center and walked around the town. We walked up to the fortress, it would have been smarter to drive there in the heat! We loved walking around the fortress. I wanted to go to St Saivin Abbey but didn’t have time because I really wanted to stop at Oradour-Sur- Glane. We walked around that village and it was very moving. We continued to our hotel, Hostellerie du Perigord Vert Brantome. It was easy to find and to park after unloading our stuff. We stayed here for 2 nights so that we could make the other stops on the way there and have enough time to visit the town, abbey and relax.
Tuesday, May 26 An easy day in Brantome with no driving. After breakfast, we walked past the abbey and crossed the bridge to town. We spent an hour walking around while it was still cool. We rested a bit and had a nice long lunch by the river. We visited the abbey in the afternoon because it would be cooler in the caves. We loved the caves, especially the Cave of Justice. I had expected more to see, but the abbey is now used mostly for offices. We went back across the bridge and sat on a bench in the shade watching two guys fly fishing. It’s a lovely town to hang out in for a day—not very crowded.