Sainte-Suzanne, France 🇫🇷 2023

Date: 20th June 2023

Travelled: 105 kms from Fougères to Voutré via Sainte-Suzanne 

Visited: Sainte-Suzanne 

Stayed: Voutré Aire CC. Free, N48.13590, W00.29040  

Budget: 29 days @ €101 per day

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Enjoyed a quiet evening in Fougères and the start of the new day is a little overcast. We service the Hymer and make for the Carrefour.

There is a huge Carrefour Supermarket on the other side of town, we spotted it next door to the Lidl yesterday. After a couple of weeks of eggs sticking to the frypan, Pam has agreed we need a new frypan. We also coughed for a new rubber door mat as Pam drove off last year leaving our last door mat behind in Poland.

On the road it’s a traffic free drive along country roads other than 27 kms along the E50 which cost us €4.

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From our guide book the Most Beautiful Villages in France you’ll find Sainte-Sulzanne on page 50. This medieval village, ‘the pearl of Maine’ stands on a ridge overlooking the Erve Valley.

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Sainte-Suzanne, Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes, Mayenne, Pays de la Loire, Metropolitan France, 53270, France

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The war memorial or cenotaph pictured below was particularly interesting as these two French field guns having been captured by the Germans in 1940 were turned around and used to shell the village into submission.

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Inside the Église we started chatting to a Dutch couple doing a B+B tour of France. Incidentally we find they are using the same guide book to plan their tour.

We go on to visit the medieval castle and château. The entry billet is €6 pp but as everyone has gone to lunch, we get a free pass.

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The castle dates to the early 11th century, it famously held fast against William the Conqueror in 1083. Like most other castles it outlived its time and fell slowly into ruin.

The site was sold to Guillaumes Fouquet (France’s first Postmaster General) who set about building a modern Château on the site in the early 17th century. The Château is now a museum but it all kids educational stuff and we didn’t think worth sharing.

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Having wandered Sainte-Suzanne for a couple of hours we’re done. The aire or carpark down the hill has little charm, so we decide to move on the Voutré about 30 minutes away as it has all the services and a nice shady spot under a tree. An hour after arriving it become a wet shady spot after a thunderstorm passes through.

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Michael + Pam