A much better night last night with a lot fewer frogs. As our cruise on the river was shorter than planed due to water levels today Leigh had arranged for us to go on another boat that travels on the Loire and Vienne and is moored at Montsoreau, just below the confluence of the two rivers.
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The confluence of the Loire the Vienne from the right |
This boat is very shallow with a large outboard engine mounted on a hydraulic lift system so that it can be raised when going over the shallows.
 Robin’s boat waiting for us on the bank of the Loire |  Robin at the steering position with Leigh beside him. |  The picnic tables with the built in gas grills |
Onboard it has picnic tables with built in gas powered grills where we cooked our own meal of marinated steak and chicken. Robin the owner drives the boat from a seat on the port side just in front of the rear cabin that houses the fridge and a composting toilet along side the lifting outboard engine. The boat is even wheelchair friendly with a ramp that can deployed over the front boarding steps.
We went a short way downstream through the bridge where the flow was quite strong.
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 The road bridge just below the confluence |
 The water rushing past the marker buoy |  Robin checking the depth |
We then headed upstream passing the Château de Montsoreau as well as the chapel Candes-Saint-Martin before reaching the confluence with the Vienne. Here we had to go right up the Vienne as the Loire was far too low even for our shallow draft.
 Château de Montsoreau |  Candes-Saint-Martin |
As we went up the Vienne we passed this traditional boat moored against the bank.
Notice the large shallow rudder for working in these very shallow waters almost like an oar lying on the surface. After we had travelled a few kilometres up stream we nosed against the bank dropping the anchored in the shallow clear water for lunch.
 The anchor in clear shallow water |  Diner |  Hauling the anchor |
When it was time to leave I gave a hand pulling in the anchor before Alain and Leigh poled the bows round to deeper water. As we made our way back down stream we passed very close to sunken trees and Alain and Leigh were employed as lookout for the shallows and other obstacles.
 Alain and Leigh poling off |  pointing out the obstacles |  sunken trees |
| Passing very close to the shallows |
Our captain Robin should really have been on the stage as he acted out with us the tale of the king, his tax collector and his mistress who lived in the Château. I was the husband of the tax collectors mistress and got topped and Geoff the tax collector.
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Saying goodbye to Robin we headed off in the minibus for a few hours walking round Château de Villandry and its gardens.
 The oriental drawing room |  A model of the Château made from matchsticks |
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|  Bath with modesty cover |  The Moat Bedroom |
Wooden Floor
The gardens are very extensive and are cared for by ten full time gardeners.
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A plan of the gardensFollowing a quick ice cream it was back to Nymphea for yet another superb meal from Jenny, still moored just above the lock and this was the view.
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