The Fortress at the End of the Road - a photo on Flickriver

            My Uncle Peter once said to me "You can't have the one without the other." His simple but wise words came one morning at the end of a special week in County Cork with my Irish cousins, of whom I'm particularly fond. Parting from them is never easy and when you combine that with the idea of returning to work, well you get the picture. What he meant was, it's these gloomy moments that make the best times as good as they are.

I've been feeling quite nostalgic over the last couple of days. But the object of the happy memories wasn't Ireland - it was a 400 mile cycle ride across France. At present I'm getting daily reminders of just how much fun it was on my social media feed. 4 years ago right now we were wild camping on a huge bank of shingle near Saumur, a space that is submerged under the River Loire for much of the year. The following day we arrived here at Chinon, a place I'd dreamed of visiting for more than 20 years with its iconic castle, favourite home of Henry II of England - who like all English kings of that era was to all intents and purposes French. I do enjoy my history but I'm no scholar and there's nothing worse than a dilettante, so I won't try and bore you with facts that I'll probably get wrong. Suffice to say I believe that by the time he died here in 1189 he was at war with his eldest surviving son (Richard the Lionheart), and things weren't going awfully well. Richard duly became King of England for the next 10 years, during which time he spent only 6 months in the country he ruled. And that was just to tax our ancestors out of their homes and to near starvation in order to finance the third crusade to the Holy Land. On the way home he managed to get captured near Vienna. Of course the ever suffering English tax payer had to pay the ransom, which happened to be 150,000 marks. Or three times the Crown's annual revenue.

We'd agreed to go as far as we could in the time we had, remembering that this was a holiday, where good food and wine were just as important as covering the miles each day. We completed our adventure beneath the walls of this nightly fortress, rewarded by a blood red sunset as swallows chased low across the frothing waters of the River Vienne. It seemed a fitting place to end such a fantastic journey in a country that loves the cyclist just as much as the cyclist loves it back. 

Recently we agreed that another trip across French soil on two wheels is overdue. Hopefully the world will return to some sort of normality so that we can all start doing the things we once took for granted again. Roll on the next adventure.

Taken in: France / Centre / Arrondissement de Chinon / Chinon (show map)

Taken on: August 10, 2016

Tags:

Chinon

France

Riviere

Vienne

Riviere Vienne

castle

chateau

fortress

evening

summer evening

blue hour

bridge

summer

landscape photography

landscape

long exposure

outdoor « less

Sets appears in: • France 2016

Groups appears in: • Amateurs • Flickriver more » • " Life Is Great - C'est La Vie - So ist das Leben !" • Flickr Social Club • @mitié France - Québec • Amateur Photographer Magazine • Flickr Social « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G3, f/11.0, 13 sec, 14mm (=28mm), ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G3
Lens:	LUMIX G VARIO 14-42/F3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	13
Focal Length:	14mm (35mm equivalent: 28mm)
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.5 (Windows)
Show full info

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