Saint-Savin sur Gartempe

View of the abbey from the new bridge

Sunday morning. Today I managed to organise a croissant and coffee through the camp-site shop. Then it was packup time and get the bike loaded again. The underseat straps of the panniers were sagging a bit but to get the seat off meant untangling all the straps holding the panniers on. They were sitting clear of the exhaust OK and were solid enough when everything tied together so instead made a note to self.

The abbey in the town doesn't open till after lunch on Sunday so I planned to spend a couple of hours investigating the other wonders of Saint-savin. Drove into the main square before the abbey and set off walking with boots, helmet and jacket dangling off the bike. It was already getting too warm.

The old bridge between St.Germain & Saint-savin

Headed over the new bridge and got a better picture of the abbey. Looking down at the river flowing by, fish were swimming about, when I don't know how many frogs all started bellowing. I thought at first it was ducks but there were none about; couldn't find the frogs either, probably well hidden in the grassy bank.

Not far downstream is the old town bridge that used to link St.Germain to Saint-savin. It looks pretty good with the mansard roofed houses on the Saint-savin side. Took me a while to walk round there and as I was peering over the bridge, the blue-flash of a Kingfisher whizzed by; hunted everywhere to see if I could find it perched on a tree but no luck. Continued over the bridge and by now getting rather blasé about the quality of the medieval houses and streets - I have no more room in my head for these "ordinary" ancient stone buildings.

11th century church in St. Germain

Eventually walked down the avenue of trees between the abbey and the river to try and get some close-up external pictures of the abbey or the abbot's lodge at the opposite end from the church; it was more interesting to look at though it is in a pretty derlict state. On the river bank is a pink mill-house which has a glazed porch set over the wheel; sadly it too is pretty run-down. A couple of canoeists were attempting, vainly, to paddle up the mill-race in the wrong direction. It was that sort of lazy, warm day with nothing terribly important to be doing.

Continued down a wider avenue between the river and a residential quarter; mostly modern houses but some evidently repurposed and refurbished older stock. Just before the town road petered out to become a country road, on the other side of the river was the St.Germain church. Reportedly 11th century and although it did not look especially worthy, it definitely looked pretty with a lawn running down to the river and a couple of youthful weeping willows getting ready to dangle into the water. But it must be close to lunchtime, my stomach said; back to the town square for something to eat and sit in the sun waiting for the Abbey to open.