As I was moving in the general direction of Lyon, I thought that I would see if my AirBNB hosts from four years ago were still hosting. It turned out that they weren’t and had moved from Lyon to Angers, in the Loire, a region of many chateaux and not far from ‘my’ chateau at Le Breuil-sous-Argenton.

I was invited to stay ‘if I was in the area’ and so I made it my business to be in the area. I wanted to see Lauriane and Kevin again, and I also wanted to visit my chateau, which would require some local help.

Their new home is an older style of house, updated by Kevin, who has further plans as time permits. And they have a great hammock!

I was made very welcome by the new kitten too, after he discovered that I would put up with a considerable amount of kitten behaviour … and I have the scratches to prove it!

Angers is an ideal place to base oneself for visits to the various chatueax in the valley and has a great chateau of its own, right on the edge of the town centre, and overlooking the river.

It’s also not far by train to Nantes, a port city further downriver, so I spent a day there too. There is a museum dedicated to Jules Verne, who was born in Nantes. He is perhaps best known by English schoolboys as the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea originally published as Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. Also at Nantes is Les Machines d’Île where huge puppets and large elephants, amongst other things, are made. You can ride on the elephant, along with about 30 other people (it’s that big) and other machines are on display in the Gallery, based in a former shipyard, complete with slipways into the river and large cranes.