One of the joys of living here in Southern Touraine is the abundance of walking routes available to us. Yesterday, as the full sun rose once again into a clear blue sky, we decided that instead of doing Pauline's usual walk, we would head over to the Forêt de Preuilly in search of some shade.
On arrival, it seemed we had the forest to ourselves. We chose the aptly named path 'L’Ombre des Grands Chêne' (The Shade of the Great Oaks) as our route for the walk.
The path begins, however, with surprisingly little shade. For a long stretch, we walked under the full glare of the sun, the gravel crunching dryly beneath our feet. It wasn’t until the trail curved gently and dipped beneath a stand of tall trees that we found the relief of dappled shade.
There, under the protective canopy of the trees the air softened. The sun filtered through in scattered patches, dancing lightly on the ground ahead of us.
We became a wee bit concerned about the lack of route markings and coming out onto another stretch under the full glare of the sun the only sound we could hear was Pauline asking "are you sure we know where we are going?" I’m not entirely sure why she would doubt my legendary route-finding skills but nonetheless, I sallied forth with confidence (or at least a convincing imitation of it).
At one point, I picked my way along an overgrown side path, drawn by a glint of water through the trees. Pushing through the brambles and tall grass, I finally caught a glimpse of a large étang, its still surface shimmering in the sunlight. The only company it seemed to keep were some swans gliding silently across the water,
Further along this part of the route we reached a crossroads with no clear signs. I defaulted to my usual 'safe bet', go left, on the logic that it’s better to choose a path that might lead you back to where you started!
I was eventually rewarded with a route marker, along with a smug little told you so moment.
We eventually arrived at a spot, the first of the day, that felt familiar. I remarked that David had once led our randonnée group from this very point up onto the road and back to the car park. Since we’d followed very few of our little acorn-fellow markers up to this point, we decided to trust him and follow, rather than take the road.
The path dipped into woodland again, cool and hushed, as if quietly approving our choice. We walked on, half-watching for waymarks, half-trusting we wouldn’t need them.
The path wound gently through towering oaks, their thick canopies casting a welcome shade across the forest floor. The air was noticeably cooler beneath the trees and to our delight, we encountered marker after marker along the way. many of them not even strictly necessary, but reassuring all the same.
We were a wee bit surprised to eventually arrived back at where we had entered the trail and the realisation that,somewhat sheepishly. that this was in fact 'L’Ombre des Grands Chêne' and the rest of the walk was simply to get us here, doh!
After that, we took the familiar “let’s just head up to the road” route and followed it back to the Étang de Ribaloche, where our car was waiting without the keys locked inside but that's another story!.
