Tuesday June 5

First off, I headed to Montbazon.  The other day I'd found myself on this extremely narrow road and wanted to walk along it today.

The sign on the right shows you that there is really only room for one car. Luckily I didn't meet anyone on the way the day I was driving.  The church "Notre Dame de la Bonne Aide" that's along this road had some lovely decorations on the walls, around the windows and on the ceiling.

 This laneway

permitted access to the wash-house at the Indre river, and legend has it that the Duchess of Montbazon used the lane to go to the river to drown her illegal children.  It's hard to ignore this huge statue built on the northeast corner of an old fortress on the hill.

She is Notre Dame de la Bonne-Aide, the patroness of the parish.  She's a big girl - 9.3 metres high and weighs 8 tons!  I drove further on, to a town called Sache, to see a chateau where Balzac used to stay.  It's now a museum to his life and work.

My ninth chateau!  This is the bedroom Balzac used when he stayed here.  It's set up as they think he would have had it.

He was a prodigious worker and thrived on coffee, claiming it helped his imagination.  He had it sent from Paris.  There is a manuscript room and it's always a thrill to me to see a famous writer's actual hand writing.

He corrected his original drafts, galleys, later proofs, and even published texts, anticipating another printing.

On the lowest level is Rodin's masterpiece statue.

I hopped in the car to do some more driving.  Look at all this corn.

My last stop was Richelieu.  It's a planned town, with archways at each entry

and a lovely row of townhouses.

I followed my nose again to head home - I just can't make sense of maps!  As luck would have it, I drove past the forest of Chinon.  It's the kind of place that the Prince would have fought his way through to find his Princess.  I could see leaf litter paths leading deeper into the forest, who knows where.  At one point the tree branches met overhead and I drove in dappled shadow.