Driving to the Loire Valley during the first stage of road trip was a pleasure. Despite being somewhat fatigued from a sleepless night on the ferry, I was charmed by the scenery we saw. Today, I thought I’d try something different so I’m going to share a little snippet from the book to give you a glimpse inside my writing world.
This excerpt is from our first day driving to the Loire Valley on our 2013 Europe road trip
Driving to the Loire Valley from the UK
First off, let’s touch on how we travelled from England to France. We took the overnight ferry from Portsmouth with Brittany ferries, arriving in St Malo on the Brittany coast. From here, we started the drive south to Onzain; it’s a beautiful drive if you take the time to enjoy it and writing about it now brings back vivid memories of stunning country views and sunflower filled fields. I must admit, I was incredibly apprehensive at that point of what lay ahead in my 3,000 mile challenge.
Driving through the Loire Valley
~ From the Chapter ~ “Long Straight Roads and Empty Plains.”
The undulating forest green of the rolling, wooded hills gives way to vast plains. We drive for miles without seeing a soul, only the odd house sitting lonely on the horizon and the occasional level crossing with grasses waving their willowy heads between the railway tracks. My tiredness at this point is getting quite significant as is my headache but I feel that we are in touching distance, so I decide not to stop. I know that I need to turn right at some point to head down to Onzain, and when I pass a tiny lane I realise very quickly that the village of Herbault where I was going to turn off is little more than a few houses. I turn around and take the lane with no signpost; it’s got to be worth a punt – I need to go south and the sun tells me this road goes south, easy!
Driving down this twisty lane into the unknown, I feel quite confident that we are in the right place and sure enough after about five minutes we arrive in Onzain – only to be greeted by local gendarmerie (police). Isn’t it funny how even when you haven’t done anything wrong, an officer of the law can make you feel like you have!
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If you’d like to read more, you can see reviews by visiting Amazon here. Profits from the book are donated to the MS Society.
A roadside break for headache tablets!
