The sun is shining, the fields are full of sunflowers, the verges crammed with wild flowers, magical castles are in abundance, the French open roads are empty, in Max with the roof down on our latest road trip. What more could we ask for?

We knew it was going to be a long hot day so we planned a couple of stops. The 1st was Abbaye Fontenay, a beautifully restored Cistercian Abbey, it was used as a paper mill more recently, and had its own water wheel for the forge hammer.

Next stop was for ice cream at a little roadside shop. They only had magnums in boxes of 4!!! Stocked up with beer while we were there. The French are on their heads at the minute, stroppy farmers turning signs upside down in some sort of protest!

Next stop was Chateau de Chambord Castle. Never quite expected it to be so astounding. Not much time here but we managed to take in the inspirational fairytale architecture. We couldn’t resist finishing our vist with a Movenpick ice cream.

We end our day in a troglodyte cave house in the Loire Valley, which is cool in more ways than one. Outside temperature when we arrived was 35 degrees!