Tuesday 30th March

We checked out of B and B by 9am and drove into Amiens. The TomTom successfully navigated us to a parking station in the centre of town near the main square - on the opposite side of the cathedral from the locations near the river where we had previously had dinner.

The first task was to visit the Orange France shop to buy a French SIM card for my iPhone. In my broken French, I explained what I wanted and he installed it for me. When I found that it didn't seem to be connecting to the internet, he found someone else who spoke a little more English to help us. Eventually it started working.  I suspect it just took a while for the new SIM to register with their server.

The next stop was to visit the cathedral. We had seen it from the outside on the day we arrived in the Somme Valley but we hadn't been able to see inside it until today. The Michelin guide gives it a three-star rating. It is a magnificent cathedral.

After we had got out of the parking station, Suzy had noticed a department store (Galleries Lafayette) and so we went there on the way back to the car to look at baby clothes.

The main task for today was to drive more than 400km to a town called Saumur in the Loire Valley. Most of the trip was on good quality motorways and so it was generally easy going. Although we didn't come across too much traffic, there were quite a few semi-trailers on the road - especially on one stretch when we were heading towards the big port of Le Havre. When we turned to head more south, the trucks probably continued on to the port.

We stopped for a lunch stop on at a service centre on the motorway. This was the first time we had needed to fill up the car's tank. It takes diesel which is cheaper than petrol in France.

Most of the journey today had been in sunshine and clouds but no rain. Soon after leaving our lunch stop, we noticed some heavy dark clouds ahead. This tuned out to be a thunderstorm with heavy rain and strong winds. There was also some hail but the ice seemed quite soft - almost as if it couldn't decide whether to hail or snow. According to our dashboard, the outside temperature was less than 5C. All of this made driving more challenging especially when we needed to overtake semitrailers that were spraying water everywhere and generating even stronger wind forces.

The storm lasted for about 30 minutes. At about 3:30pm, I stopped the car for a leg-stretch break. Suzy had planned to get out too but quickly changed her mind after she had opened the car door a few inches. It was just too cold for her - partly because of the strong wind that was blowing.

We arrived at Saumur at about 4:30pm. Suzy had been keen to stay at a chateau in the Loire Valley and her research on the internet showed that this one was a good choice because of the excellent reviews that it got on Trip Advisor. The chateau is in one of the streets near the centre of the town.

The chateau was behind high walls and imposing metal gates. Suzy managed to contact the owner who came to open the gates and guide us into the grounds. It is a magnificent stately house surrounded by gardens. The owner explained that it used to be an in-town residence for one of the local vignerons. He and his wife had bought it from them about eight years ago to convert it into a B and B.

On the main level of the chateau, there are several large rooms with sitting areas with very tall ceilings (about 4.5m) and chandeliers. To one side, there is a large staircase that takes you upstairs to the guest rooms on the two floors above. Luckily there is a lift because I wouldn't have wanted to carry our bags all the way up the stairs.

Our room was on the top level. It was very spacious. There was a large bedroom with a double bed and single bed. The bathroom was probably the biggest that I've seen anywhere.

This is living like a king.

After settling in, we walked into town to explore - only about 10 minutes away. We walked across the bridge over the Loire, trying not to be blown off the bridge by the strong winds. On the other side, I found an ATM to get more Euro cash.

Our hosts had recommended several restaurants for dinner and for tonight they had booked us into one called L'Alchemiste which was only a block away. The chef had trained under a three-star Michelin chef before deciding to set up his own restaurant in Saumur with his wife. The decor was elegant, the service was great and the food was excellent. Magnifique.

The B and B had WiFi including a repeater on the same level as our room and so the reception was good. However, I started to get Windows error messages about IP address conflicts and had difficulty opening some web pages. There was no problem with WiFi access for our phones.

My iPhone said I had run out of credit already. When I sat down to read the brochure, it said that although I paid 15 Euros for the SIM, it only has 5 Euros of credit. It said I could recharge via the internet or by ringing a number. When I tried ringing the number, they spoke so quickly (in French) that I couldn't understand them. When I tried the internet method, they said I needed to register. They said they would send me a password to my phone but it never arrived.

I decided to talk to Thierry about both problems in the morning.