Sancerre and Charite sur Loire

Saturday 12th September 

Well this explains what's going on at the chateau this weekend and also the barking hunting dogs and trumpet (or were they hunting horns ?) practice at 7am this morning 🤣

Fête de la Sange
29th edition of the Fête de la Sange, from Friday, September 11 to Sunday, September 13, 2026, at the Château de Sully-sur-Loire park. Three days of activities celebrating nature, hunting, fishing, gastronomy, the environment, and heritage; featuring a Sunday hike, a garage sale, and the Saint Hubert Mass. International hunting horn festival (500 horn players).

Apart from that it was a great place for the night. As I left the car park was filling up quickly so I got out just in time.

We set of today in a south easterly direction, following the course of La Loire, to the hilltop village of Sancerre which is in the BVoF book, Beautiful villages of France.

It isn't in my book though so must be a recent addition perhaps.

It's a nice enough village with spectacular views across the Loire river valley, but I'm surprised it qualifies as a Les Plus Beaux Village.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the architecture to indicate any medieval or historic significance or anything especially pretty. 

So it's a bit of a mystery to me.

A lot of the shops were occupied by retailers selling rather expensive looking bottles of wine, to the tourists I expect

Still, it was nice enough for a walk around and ideal for a lunch stop.

Loire river valley views

Lots of shops selling fine wines to the tourists

Next stop was further down the river and a village called La Charite Sur Loire. 

This place is much prettier, has lots of history going back to the 14th century but isn't in the book ? Go figure
 
The village is at the mid point between the source of the Loire and it's mouth at Nantes on the Atlantic coast.

The motorhome aire is on an island in the river with good views and a short walk to the village which we explored this afternoon.

 1856 high water mark ! I think the island where 

I'm parked would have been underwater !

I'm the blue blob as usual

Some snippets of the villages history

During the Hundred Years War, the town was liberated from the English by French forces only in 1435. Joan of Arc tried to liberate the city in 1429 but failed.
A great fire ravaged the town in 1559, leaving the nave of Sainte-Croix-Notre-Dame in a ruinous state for many years. The nave was finally restored by the late 17th century, albeit with its length diminished and the stone of the original facade repurposed in the reconstruction works.[4]
In the second of the French Wars of Religion (1567–8), La Charité withstood eight months of siege by Catholic forces. It would later be one of the fortified towns given the status of Huguenot safe havens by the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (August 1570).

We enjoyed a walk around the ramparts of what I think was the monastery before heading back to Ed for a lazy afternoon beer and a siesta 😀