So we are on the final leg of our fortnight and what a few weeks we have had. Today we left Chablis and drove across France to the Loire landing in the beautiful town of Saumur on the banks of the river. We last visited here around 13 years ago and not a lot seems to have changed. As we were early for our Chambre D'Hotel to book in we took a couple of hours meandering around the town and visiting the old Chateau. We were amazed at the difference between British and French health and safety with the Chateau still being open to visitors whilst the dumper trucks and workmen worked around them to restore various parts and no hard hats or flourescent jackets in sight!

Arrving at Chateau Beaulieu our stop for the next three nights we were amazed to see an old 1950s MG in front of the house, this then was joined by four other MGs of other models and vintages. We had somehow landed in the middle of a group of MG enthusiasts on a tour of the Loire. Needless to say the conversation then began on the delights of engine sizes and various other car type of things ( you can imagine that Lucy is writing this!) as well as some strong advice to join the MG Car club rather than the owners club. Great fun crowd of people. If this was not enought English conversation for for the night we walked back into Saumur for dinner at Le Pot de Lapin (highly recommended) and ended up in conversation with a fireman from Bristol who was on his yearly wine buying forage to the Loire. C'est la vie - as we slip back into conversation with others again after two weeks enjoying each othes company!