After several wonderful days in Paris, it was time to head out to our home-away-from-home in Saint Mathurin sur Loire. We repacked our suitcases, took the metro to Gare Montparnasse, and boarded our train. The second class seats are very spacious and comfortable. We had purchased lunch in the train station to eat on the train – eating lunch on the train always reminds me of my very first French train ride so long ago!

Within just a few hours we were in Angers. We picked up the rental car and prepared to drive to the house. I have driven in other countries before but never in France. I was terrified I would forget to watch for traffic entering our road from the right. Do you know about that little law in France? That people coming from a road to the driver’s right have the right-of-way, unless they have a yield or a stop sign…which are very rare. Yes, it’s true. If you are driving down the road, main road or country lane, you must watch for drivers coming from roads on your right. They don’t even slow down. They know they have the right-of-way, and you had better be watching! It’s amazing to me to see traffic on a main road come to a stand-still because someone is coming toward the main road from a side road on the right. Yup. Truth!

Anyway, we drove along the beautiful Loire River for about thirty minutes and entered the village of Saint Mathurin Sur Loire. Such a lovely little town. Actually, it is a perfect little town. One pharmacy, one Boulangerie/Patisserie, one creperie, one seafood restaurant, one tabac, one market, one boucherie (butcher shop), one incredible restaurant called La Luciole, one church, one cemetary, one post office. Everything one needs and nothing more.

We got to our house and met the owners. We had rented the entire house for one month. The house is called La Petite Echauguette, which means “little watchtower” The owners, Corinne and Bruno, were absolutely wonderful! They had everything ready for us. They took time to make sure we understood how to use everything, and where everything was located. They had written most of it down, because they knew it would be a lot to take in. Then, they were off on their holiday.

Here is a picture of our lovely house. We fell in love with it. What do you think?

My husband and I just looked at each other and grinned. We were in the Loire Valley, in the home we had rented for an entire month! The world opened up to us and we grabbed it. And we did not look back.