We knew it was going to be hot today so where better to go than a cave, a wine cave no less, but a special one. Cave Monmousseau is an illuminated journey through part of a 15km tunnel carved out way back then to quarry stone for the loire chateaux. Now wine producers are very sensible people and the light bulb moment was when they realised that wine needed to be stored in cool even temperature. The caves were perfect for this.

This cave used artist drawings of local chateau and surroundings and projected them onto the walls, into the alcoves and onto the roof and floors, wow! What a great way to spend a day, artistically and interactively ( we played games badly as well ) especially a really hot day, and what made it better was the tasting of 2 beautiful sparkling wines, best sparkling wine we’ve tasted.

Back out into the heat. We found a small local producer outlet who offered a plate of local food which was lovely. By this time it was 4pm and 39 degrees so following a quick dash to the supermarket for supplies we high tailed it to our cave. Where thunder rumbled for ages but the rain went all around us.

PS who would believe you would find a Japanese weeping pagoda tree in a carpark.