Another Day in Bonneval

France is heating up!  An early morning walk was the solution to battling the heat of the day. Put on our walking shoes - in my case sandals - and headed off to explore parts of Bonneval not visited yesterday. 

Waking to another sunny day - with two neighbours. The Ancient Abbey of St Florentin overlooks our vans. 

Quite an interesting place when you take a closer look. Water of the Loire River has been channeled off to form a moat like canal around the old medieval part of Bonneval. On the inside of the canal once stood the 13th century defensive fortification - now only a few towers (donjons) and some remains of the wall. 

Remains of the XII century donjons around Bonneval. 

The canal walk early in the day certainly beat the heat of the day. Fascinating to see all the houses that border the canal have purpose built wash-houses (lavoirs) at the foot of their gardens alongside the canal. 

Private laundry - lavoirs - areas along the canal. 

Today it seems that they are purely decorative, or a docking  area for a small boat. 

Note the jet vapour trails crisscrossing the French skies. 

Remains of one of the  medieval gates to the village is still a functioning access point to the village. 

As we progressed further around the village it was obvious the care that the locals take of their environs. Many beautiful gardens and garden boxes surround the village. We noticed, even, that hoses for a individual plant watering system had been installed along the edge of the canal wall. 

We liked this notice:

The rest of the day we did some chores and as well as being kept hydrated as the temperature rose into the 30s.