Hi franglais…spent some time there over the years, by lorry, car, and bike, lovely area, done a lot of the chateaux but this trip I’d like to get to the museum, …if I’m allowed…
If i remember you dont get over now ? bet you miss it…
On the very rare visit to the UK, I can’t wait to get back, one day is enough these days…
I used to love doing the multiple wine collections up the Loire valley. I preferred them to the one-hit collections. All those little vineyards and small holdings - half a pallet here, four pallets there, ten boxes here, 2 pallets there. Plus you were given wine at every one to sample at home. With Les beau Routiers in between to enjoy in the evenings. Happy days gone for good!
ERF-NGC
Did a lot of groupage wine for different companies on’n’off so a fair bit of time in lovely places including the Loire. The tank museum is all under cover, and is very large.
The Chateau is very well organised. It has an equine biased museum there because of the Cavalry connections. The big bridge is named after the Cadre Noir too.
Visits to the underground mushroom farms too!
Sorry, going all tourist guide…
As I’m sure you know, needing access to various smaller places meant that weight limits were… …hmmm… sort of…advisory only. Saumur was a bit interesting with an artic.
Worst/Best was the center of Beaune…After passing the 7.5T limit, then the 3.5T limit…then the “No Caravans” sign…
But, not to exaggerate, another driver had put me right on that one, so I wasn`t going in blind.
Ahhh
So would you know Marie Pascal? Anglo office in Pompey?
And Mike who had a very nicely turned out F12?
And that piccie is near Moussillon??
Well it was 22 years ago and don’t remember Mike’s F12. TBH regular Anglo subbies rarely met! Marie’s name rings a bell. They were very good in the office and always paid on time, so I enjoyed working for them as an O/D.
The picture was taken at sunrise (hence the soft light - I’d parked there overnight) on 5th Sept 2002 at Chateau Plaisance near St Sulpice.
ERF-NGC
@les_sylphides
Not one I recognise loading at. I`m sure I have passed it though.
The formerly excellent Resto at St Pey D’Armens has changed hands a few times and last I heard was no longer Routier friendly. A pity.
I don’t recall the name of the Resto you mention, but as we know, there were many wonderful watering holes in France that one perhaps visited only once but remembered for ever!
I think the real old-time culture we enjoyed in those days disappeared for ever with the combination, in the early 2000s, of Routes Nationale closures to lorries and the fierce alcohol laws that were introduced to reduce road deaths.
ERF-NGC
At risk of repeating my comments elsewhere, I was talking to the owner of an excellent Routier Resto the other day and she says that for years now it has been getting harder for them all. There are fewer open and those remaining seem to have less trade. Even some French drivers now eat in their cabs of an evening she said.
As in the UK there seems to be trailer swops going on, and fewer drivers staying out for days on end. It wouldn’t suit thee’n’me maybe, but does suit those coming up today. Because we wouldn’t want that, doesn’t mean it’s “wrong*”, I accept that it is just a different way to do things.
*actually it is wrong but I’m too polite to say so! 
Relais De Gascoigne. Parking along the roadside.
Used by local metiers at lunchtime, and during the vendange the workers were taken there too.
Separate round tables for some, but we Routiers had the two long tables just inside the door.
Most Routiers now limit the wine included with a meal rather than the old freely help yourself way. In truth, although I was guilty of overindulgence sometimes, I think it is the way to go.
More drivers seem to avoid any wine at all now.
D’accord on every point. It’s horses for courses. The home-by-teatime culture may be good for marriages and family unity; but the cameraderie of drivers wielding carafes of vino on long tables filled with all nationalities was good for the soul! I too sometimes over-did it and I agree that we’re undoubtedly safer and possibly healthier for the changes. But the big thing is that Routier culture transformed the job into an enjoyable work experience in a way that has never existed in the UK. Even in Spain, you didn’t really get that depth of experience because everyone sat at separate tables in the Hostals and had to compete with blaring TVs on different channels at either end of the room. Some of the old Dutch and Belgian ones were good though!
A grand sight!
A 1958 Bernard 6 RA150 with a fridge.
Yes!!! Merci beaucoup Monsieur.
Yup, the resto near the peage is still there and packed full most nights. The other one near the roundabout has been closed for a few years now, pity as that wasn’t a bad one either.
Never knew they had a tank museum in Saumur, sounds I need to pay a visit next time I’m in the area.
Never noticed them before to be honest.
Fancy one?
https://www.leboncoin.fr/materiel_agricole/2491439082.htm
I don’t know if €3500 is a bargain… I’ll just wait for Senior aka @fergie47 to go and inspect it…
