Orleans is said to be the capital of the Loire Valley and the Loire Valley France's heart. The Loire River is the longest river in France, 630 miles long or over 1000km as we should say in Europe. It rises in the Mountains, southeast somewhere and flows via Orleans to the coastal cities of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire on the west coast where it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. We are on a flood plain (which is similar to New Orleans in America and why it got its name), so if the Loire does burst its levies we will be under 10m of water. I'm not too worried as the last flood was 100 years ago and the emergency sirens are still tested on the first wednesday of every month at midday, so we will be alerted if the river is coming.
The first time we heard the sirens it was a bit of a shock, not knowing what to do we followed the 'foreigner in France regime' which works in almost all occassions... Look out the window and copy what everyone else is doing! Which in this case was nothing, Ok then air raid sirens going off in the middle of the day is normal.
The 'Loire river valley', is now all about the 100 Châteaux built along the river and the wine, a little Joan of Arc and a weekend getaway for Parisans. Walking or cycling along the levies, stopping in a small restaurant for lunch, wandering around a château and sampling wine from local caves is pretty much all there is to do. Hmmm this all reminds me of the wonderfully beautiful English county of Somerset (maybe my 'sun'glasses are starting to get a little rosetinted)? simply exchange the levies for the Levels, poncy restaurants for a pub, châteaux for Glastonbury Tor, Burrow Mump or Wells and of course scrumpy cider.
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