Vince's mum's farmhouse in the Loire Valley, in the area called La Guyardiere just outside of the village of Mansigne about 45 km from Le Mans. This tranquil place was a treat at the end of a somewhat troublesome journey from Paris. On Thursday afternoon, we caught the Eurostar from King Cross, London to Gare de Nord, Paris and stayed overnight in a dodgy room, which was the only one available close to the station. The next day we visited Vince's mum to collect they keys to the farmhouse (by taxi after being advised we could walk to our to the Metro stop, but the destination was confused by our pronunciation of it and it turned out to be a 30min taxi ride, we should have just stayed at the station and caught the metro, we will know next time) about mid afternoon we boarded the slow (and much cheaper than the TGV) train to Le Mans.
Fortunately we got there just in time before the Avis office closed and we where able to hire a car to get to Mansigne. We finally arrived, after many a few wrong turns, entirely due to our miss-interpretation of the directions we were provided. We arrived in Mansigne only a few km from our destination, but couldn't find the way, so we stopped a number of times to ask for directions from locals, but could not communicate due to our lack of French. With the sun going and still not in a warm room settling in for the night, we stopped again to ask for help, but this time with a trusty pen and paper in hand and we received a map which we followed and found the house, just before darkness fell at 10pm. It was very generous of Vince's mum to have a cold bottle of wine in the fridge which was opened with some relief. The trip was well worth it though.
The next day we woke ready to explore the area. We got back in the car, feeling more accustomed to driving on the right hand side of the narrow country roads, we set out toward the town of Le Lude and visit Chateau Le Lude.
Back on the Eurostar we headed toward London after a what turned out to be a fun experience in France.
Chateau Le Lude
The chateau was amazing. On the way back to Mansigne we stopped into the local butcher and grocer to get dinner. Noran lit the fire, over which we cooked our steaks, then sat down to a tasty meal.
The next day we decided to venture further, in the drizzling (much to Noran's delight) rain we drove to Tours and onward to the Loire River in search of more Chateau's. After a few wrong turns we were rewarded with a view of the Chataeu De Legende in Usse. Safely parking the car we wondered back in time to explore this 15th Century building.
Chateau De Legende in the town of Usse
We jumped back in the car and following our trusty map, promptly got lost but found at treat on a narrow road following the Loire, the village of Brehemont.
Driving though vineyards we found our way back on the road to Mansigne for another night in. The next day we headed back to LeMans and then after dropping of the car got on the train back to Paris to visit some friends of Norans.
We mastered the metro and saw some tourist sights of Paris.
Back on the Eurostar we headed toward London after a what turned out to be a fun experience in France. 
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