A Tour of Sablé-sur-Sarthe

Happy France gives you an approximation of where things are

Sablé is, technically, a city, but with a population of a mere 15,000 residents, it's quaint, quiet and absolutely charming. The perfect conditions to inspire some serious writing sessions.

Boat on the Sarthe River

The most impressive aspects of Sablé are its church (with its monument to Sablé's fallen soldiers and citizens)...

...The port along the Sarthe river...

...And the Château that proudly overlooks the city.

Still, not all is the idyllic paradise I make it out to be. Indeed, there is a scourge in Sablé-sur-Sarthe that strikes absolute fear into my heart.

There is...graffiti.

Thug Life, yo.

All joking aside, everyone that I have met here has been friendly and good-humored. They all lack the permanent scowl that comes from the grind of living in a large city day in and day out. Still, I'll admit that after residing in Miami and Dijon, Sablé does feel tiny. It lacks the big-chain clothing stores that I would normally find all over France, something that, for the time-being, my wallet can thank.

There is, however, a McDonald's right across the road from where I currently reside. I honestly cannot make this stuff up, people. When I think about how I once complained last year that all I had to see in Miami was a McDonald's...

In case I need to go on a shopping spree, I would be required to travel to the nearest large city to Sablé-sur-Sarthe: Le Mans.

Yes, there is actually a French city called Le Mans. I have yet to visit but I will undoubtedly end up there at some point during my stay in the Loire Valley. Here is an arrow pointing in its direction.

Now, to answer the most burning question that has been on everyone's mind...

Yes, French stop signs are in English. Who would have thought it?

And since I promised you all horses, here are some more horses. Lots and lots of horses.

Trotting along

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

Barb the French Bean

...And Then There Were Horses

Well, folks, after having traveled for three hours from Miami to Boston, spent four hours waiting to travel on a six-hour flight to Paris and then proceed to wait and take a couple of trains, I finally arrived (safe and sound) in my new base of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, right in the Loire Valley. And let me say this: the air is so clean and pure here that it is as if my olfactory senses were getting a high-five from nature.

Oh, I also mentioned in my previous post that there would be horses.

Lots...

and LOTS...

of horses.

Barb the oh-so-happy-she-might-explode-from-the-joy-or-dissolve-into-a-babbling-mess French Bean

P.S.

This is what my posts look like when I have not slept for 48 hours straight and have swollen feet from extended periods of pressurized sitting down on planes.