Scenes from Thenay in the Loire

We stayed in Thenay in 2008 and it was our first meeting with the owners, Carol and Michael Grant.

Since then we have returned to renew friendships (this is our 4th time). They both come from England and decided to retire in the Loire in a Maison on a country lane in the commune of St Romaine sur Cher. They bought their cottage in Thenay many years earlier as a holiday residence. As I understand, it was a stop over to the alps to enjoy their passion of skiing.

Thenay is in the Loire regions of the Touraine and the Sologne, known for the wine and of course its closeness to all the great Chateaux of the Loire. There are many more sights that just the Chateaux as Sue and I have discovered in this longer than usual stay in the Loire.

The markets are held in most towns and villages on either one or two days a week. The country side is literally covered in vineyards and the wine is pretty good - we can say from experience. We've taken a liking to the local Gamay which goes well with the local cheeses.

Staying in the village as we are for an extended period, we are getting to meet the local store holders which makes us feel a bit more welcome. We are also discovering a few good local eateries however Sue does enjoy buying the local produce and experimenting. The local items such as rabbit, guinea fowl, duck and of course the local cheeses are so much less costly than back at home (that's if you can get them).

We'll do a post on the cottage in the future, but if you intend on visiting the Loire for more than just a few days, we couldn't recommend better hosts than Carol and Michael.

The cottage in Thenay

Our car park opposite the house

A night scene of the street - our car park opposite the cottage.

The church is central to the village and the sign points to Contres where we shop at the Super U for a great selection of cheese, wine and meats ranging from poultry, pork, fish, beef.
Cheverny takes us to a Chateau and Bourre takes us to the caves where the greatest array of Fungi are grown. Monthou sur Cher has become one of my favourite drive by/ride by villages so far.
Picture perfect.

Thenay has a small what I would call, general store run by Nicole - she has a nice smile and giggle.

There is also a bar and restaurant that seems to be open only for lunch and all the workers come here so it must be OK. We ate here on our first time in Thenay and were happy.

The local Boulanger - Patisserie is where we get our morning baguette and croissants each morning. Yep, that's me as the shadow.

Some très bonne meats here

An empty corner shop, ready to renovate.

This two story Maison is for sale reportedly in the region of 140.000 euro. I'm told another 100,000 euro plus might be needed to bring it up to scratch. That's about maybe $AUS300,000. We met the elderly lady who lived here on our first trip to Thenay in 2008. She was friendly and always had a smile and a bonjour for us. Unfortunately she passed away recently and the house has been for sale for some time now.

And while you are revocation the Maison, here a Citroen 2CV van to restore. 

Our street with autumn turning to winter (12 degrees today)

Just incase you don't have a washing mating, Thenay has its own communal wash house.

While the washing is drying you might have a relaxing Vin in the park. 

Or try your hand on the local motor racing circuit 

I've ridden several laps on this 1.4 km circuit - to the left is the bar and restaurant.

So that's a little bit of Thenay, our home to the end of November before we move off to Paris - one week in the city of light before flying home to Melbourne, our home by the bay.

But before we do, there's many more adventures to come. We venture off to Chinon, Saumur and a week later to Bordeaux. Hope you can join us.