Travels with Mavis.: Friday 3rd June Clos de Chateliers to L’ile Bouchard

After an early morning walk through the vineyard, we set off to L’ile bouchard; an Island in the Vienne north of Chatellerault, via Chinon. Chinon is another historic town in the Loire valley, which was too busy for us to find anywhere to park, so we moved on to a campsite at L’ile Bouchard, on the banks of the Vienne. La Vienne is a tributary of the Loire.

France is having a very dry year and the Vienne was very low; masses of riverbed was exposed and dry. It was very hot. We managed a 4 km bike ride along the river bank and then back along the road, and through the old town of Bouchard. The streets are very narrow and the French motorcyclists are sometimes very fast, so it is exciting cycling.