In the morning we went for a short stroll along the side of
the lake and admired the dolmen sat on an island in the lake just opposite the
car park. The lake was created from the abandoned workings of a quarry but the
dolmen remained in position.
Our Garmin satnav suggested that we should reserve our route towards Dreux
before we headed south but I fancied going on the smaller roads directly south
from the lake. This turned out to be an inspired decision as we passed through
the small village of Mormoulins with a chateau and an impressive water mill, no
doubt built by the owners of the chateau.
We travelled on and found an aire in the village of Reignac-sur-Indre which
straddles the large Indre river. Signs indicated that they had serious floods
in earlier years but flood banks had been created on both banks to protect the
village. Very close to the aire was a mill on the river with a huge waterwheel and
a very sophisticated system of weirs and sluices that could steer a very large
volume of water through the mill.
We had lunch and read the aire notice board that showed that there was a dolmen
in the grounds of the chateau. Interesting, we thought, we could see if we
could find the chateau and the dolmen. The map showed a chateau and we set off
for the short walk. Google showed that we were very close to the chateau but we
couldn’t see it – there was only a very tall modern water tower. And then it
clicked, the map and Google showed ‘Chateau eau’ not ‘Chateau Eau’ – the water
tower was the chateau! We had a good laugh and returned to the van.
Onward then to the village of Manthelan where we discovered another aire with
good (and free) water and dumping facilities. We decided to amend our plans and
stay for the night. The site is next to a small lake, children’s playground and
skate park and was a three minute walk from the main street. The village only
offered a small pizza restaurant/takeaway but had a bakery that provided
excellent croissants. It turned out that there were some very pleasant public
toilets, always a bonus when staying in aires.
Photos: The mill at Mormoulins; And its chateau – a lovely building but its
grounds need some TLC; The mill on the river at Reignac-sur-Indre.
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