Sunset over the Loire

Friday
We have come away for the weekend to the eastern part of the Loire - we are staying in a Chambre d'hote between Gien and Briare. I had stumbled across the town of Briare when I was web-surfing some weeks back, before we left the States, and it looked a very picturesque place and one that we hadn't visited during our last residence in France. We had a good journey down - only about an hour - and without any heavy traffic, and after having installed ourselves in our accommodation, we went into Briare to look around and find somewhere to eat. We had only just left the car when there was the distant rumbling of thunder and the skies were looking quite threatening, so the restaurant that night was chosen more because of the weather than the menu! It did indeed start to rain, but didn't really come to much, so by the time we had eaten, it was dry again and we were able to go for a bit of a walk along one of the canals, and we ended up at this view point over the Loire as the sun was setting - a beautiful way to start the weekend!