After spending 2 days at Gien we move on in the direction of Sancerre and aim for the riverside camping site at Saint Satur, arriving at the campsite during the long French lunch hour. We wander around the site and choose a pitch, then book in, once the office is open.
It’s getting very hot here, the daytime temperature is well into the 30’s and there’s no wind to cool things down. We wait until the heat abates before venturing into Saint Satur on a shopping run as we’re running short of food. Steak with onions in a baguette, delicious.
We are camped about 3km from Sancerre so decide to cycle there on the Friday. It’s very hot and Sancerre is actually 3 miles away, but it’s all up hill. Thankfully there is very little traffic to bother us.
Sancerre turns out to be a very nice place with some superb panoramas of the surrounding countryside with views over the extensive vineyards. The town itself is very old and perched on top of a steep hill. There are many vignerons in the town, and many outlets selling wines but the steep and narrow roads discourage us from even thinking about bringing the ‘van in for a shopping spree.
Fiona enjoying a lunchtime salad, cider and Monaco in the shade in the centre of Sancerre. We later enjoyed a chilled bottle of the local produce.
After a good lunch we had a further look around the town and visited the ‘World of Sancerre’ wine museum which was well worth the visit, especially the 4D wine production simulator. That was so good, we did it twice! The views of the surrounding countryside are truly spectacular, as shown below.
The ascent to Sancerre is around 260metres over a distance of about 3km, so its uphill all the way and was hard going. Our descent, however, was great fun, as the roads were pretty much traffic free. The Garmin recorded speeds of up to 24mph on the way down…woohooo! Payback for the upward climb.