The retired traveller: Thursday, May 19, 2022 - On the road to Brittany, wandering around Sancerre

We have decided to split the 8 hours driving time between Burgundy and Brittany into shorter driving days. Thus, we have booked two nights in Loches, a Loire Valley château town about half-way between Commarin and Baden (our Brittany location). Since we had time to spare, we stopped to visit Sancerre.

This city is perched on top of a hill overlooking the Loire River and its valley. First a castle-fortress was built and a bit later walls encircling the city. In our usual bumbling fashion, we follow signs to "Centre Ville" looking for parking along the way. We found a parking lot in front of the school, but we didn't have a clue which way to go from there.

the entrance to the school

We meandered to the square at the center of town, but didn't see any tourist information signs. I finally asked a store owner for directions.

main square of the city

working our way up to the main square

The tourist bureau in Sancerre isn't in the very center, but rather at a gate where most drivers would normally arrive. It was within a block of our car, but in the opposite direction from our circular path to the main square. We do have adventures and this time we were lucky that our adventure didn't have us arriving just after the tourist office closed for lunch (usually 12:30-2:00).

Armed now with maps and a walking tour of the city, we went across the street to a park overlooking the valley below Sancerre where there were benches in the shade and toilets. We ate lunch, enjoying the view and the balmy weather.

view from the park overlooking St Satur and Loire vineyards

our lunch park - we sat on a bench under the trees

View of St. Satur from the park

It turns out that there are lots of signs for the tourist office if you know where to look. We saw them everywhere as we started to follow a very well-laid out tour of the city. A red line is painted along the side of the street with numbers painted on it when there was a point of interest. At each point of interest, there was a sign in French and English explaining what we were seeing. It was really well organized. Our map reiterated the path, the numbers, and the explanation.

Clark posting beside the world's smallest Renault - great for these narrow streets. Notice the red line in the bottom right corner. That's our path.

La Maison de Sancerre turned out not to be a wine coop, but rather a shop highlighting products made in the region. (sigh)

bell tower of the church

This historic protestant church had a sign over its door, "C'est ici la maison de Dieu"

translated, it means Here is the house of God

panorama of the square where an old catholic church and bell tower are located

As in most of these remaining medieval cities, the streets undulate up and down with the shape of the hilltop. Once in awhile, Dave had to provide extra horsepower to get my scooter up a steep hill, but for the most part, the scooter managed just fine. It doesn't like loose gravel and can bury its back wheels at times. It goes over cobblestones just fine, but the ride can be painfully bumpy even with the built in shock absorbers.

As we were nearing the end of the "red ribbon" tour, we came upon some playful and artistic embellishments to the "red ribbon".

A trompe l'oeil rabbit leads us down...

a colorful alley

And waits for us at the far end of the path

Back to where we started, we did a wine tasting of Sancerre wines at a winery just steps from our car. A nice way to finish the afternoon.

Of course, we bought 3 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from this shop

wine tasting at Le Château de Sancerre

Back in the car, we headed the rest of the way to Loches where we would spend the next 2 nights in a Best Western hotel that was in the historic former Palais de Justice (federal court building).