We ate one more breakfast at the patisserie (They had croissant almondine today, yea!) and then took the 9:30 ferry back to pick up our car. I was blown away by the number of people waiting in line to get on the ferry. Hundreds, most day-tripping over. If we return to Aix, I think the strategy will be to catch a late ferry over (when most people are leaving) and then leave early, as we did.
Today we are heading for the Loire Valley region, where the huge chateaus and good food are. We are staying in the small village of Chinon, on the banks of the Vienne River. It is about 250KM south of Paris.
Our hotel, the Agnes Sorel, is right on the river, under the chateau. We have two balconies facing out to the river, and it is very cool at night which is a relief, as the weather has suddenly decided to become summer.
Once we got close to Chinon, we left the highway and took country roads from village to village, looking at, but not touring, some of the castle-like fortress homes.
There are these mini-castles everywhere you look. Some people make a total trip of trying to go to every one.
Me? The chalets are expensive to tour, and personally I can stand only so much excess in life. There is one I want to see however. More on that later.
Tours is the biggest city in the region. We concentrated first on a few villages near Chinon. This is west of Tours. The next day we visited a few chateau to the eats of Tours. It worked well to split them up into sections like that. Kind of helped to organize our attempt to see a few places in two days. And that turned out to be just right for us.
So, I am going to divide this post up into several sections. First I'll give you photos of Chinon and the general area. Then as you scroll down, it will go chateau by chateau, with photos of each. Just scroll to the one you are interested in.
Henry the Second was here, as was Richard the Lionhearted. Joan of Arc came here while Charles the VII was using Chinon as the capital city of France. The local church has a Joan of Arc exhibit, and there is a big statue of her in the main parking lot at the edge of town.
Everybody loves Joan. Being burned at the stake helps.
Franc was also here, as you shall see.
The Loire turns out to be a big wine region, of which I know nothing.
For dinner, we went to La Cave Voltaire and met the owner, Patrice. He set out a quick tour of the Chinon wines: a white sauvignon, a rosé made from Cabernet Franc, and two reds which were both Cab Franc.
Turns out that Cabernet, the Franc, is also from Chinon.
One of my favorite varietals.
We had a plate of ten cheeses to try with the wines, and bread of course. It made a meal for us after the three course lunch, and we walked away with a bottle of our favorite, the 2011 Clos de Turpenay, grown here close to the chateau. I am going to look and see if it is available at home. The plain, creamy goat cheese really made the cab franc “pop,” and my favorite cheese was one called Vieux Lille.
Chinon is easy to walk, and there are good views over the river from up by the castle. There are also views of the castle and town from across the river. So that rounds out the viewage situation.
There are some unique timber-framed buildings here. Instead of plaster between the beams, they are filled in by narrow, red bricks.
I had the traditional, three course meal. The starter was triple foie gras: semi cooked, panna-cotta in sweet wine, and a smoked duck fillet. The main was tenderloin of pork, and I ended with a dessert of raspberries and Breton lemon shortbread.
Gail had the meal du jour. It started with a goat cheese tart, then the main was boneless spare ribs, and her dessert was some sort of a rum cake.
Add the house white and red wines, and it was a fantastic meal.
First off: we crossed the river into Langeais.
The chateau at Langeais is in the middle of town, and has a drawbridge. It is interesting to be able to walk right up to the walls and look up, trying to imagine how you would ever attack such a place. This chateau seems more like a fortress.
The grounds are scenic, and the castle, which is mostly under renovation and covered with scaffolding (so it is a “fixer-upper” castle if you are in the market to buy one) rises majestically and peacefully in the trees. This chateau seems more like a status house.
It is free to tour the grounds for an hour before closing. We only needed about 15 minutes.
The first one we went to was Chenonceau, a famous chateau on the Cher River. This is the only one we paid to go into, and I thought it was well worth it, if nothing else than to actually see it.
This is the chateau that arches across the river.
We paid our €13 (each) entrance fee and got the free guide book, which was pretty helpful.
A lot of people spent extra to get the audio tour; I had fun filling in the missing information myself.
For example, as we were walking through the assorted bedrooms and drawing rooms and studies, we noticed that there was a certain lack of bathrooms. Rather than deal with the history and whatever, it is much more fun to imagine King Henry the Second peeing in the river; one of the wives daintily lifting her skirts and bustles behind a tree.
True fact that was interesting to me: During WWII, the River Cher was the line of demarkation. So, the Chenonceau Chateau entrance was on land controlled by the Nazis, but going through the galley, across the river, that door was on “free French” soil. So, during the war, the French Resistance traveled back and forth through the chateau.
Another cool fact: the kitchen was converted to a field hospital during WWI.
The kitchen was, to me, the coolest set of rooms. They are in the piers and foundation of the chateau, the part that is sunk into the river, supporting the main house and first span. So they are down a set of stairs, almost like a set of secret rooms, tucked in here and there. To go from one part of the the kitchen to the other, you actually go over an interior “bridge” of sorts. There are separate rooms for cooking, cleaning, meat preparation, and so on. It was all very interesting how it was tucked in there.
We saw the Eddie Munster Bedroom. (Catherine de Médicis’ portrait in Diane de Poitiers’ bedroom. Don’t ask; don’t tell.)
There was the “Drama Queen” room. When her husband Henry III died, Louise of Lorraine so and so had her whole room painted black, filled with death symbols, had his portrait in its own little alcove, and had a prayer bench positioned right by a window so she could continually kneel and mourn. A little dramatic, I think.
The chapel was pretty, with alien creatures featured in the stain glass windows. There are the usual assortment of grandiose, self-important and self-righteous paintings of baby Jesus playing with the baby king, Jesus anointing the King and Queen, and the Royalty hanging out with their buddy, God. All pretty self-serving and utterly delusional… kind of like all these politicians who claim to be “chosen by god” or hearing “the voice of the almighty.”
The walls are “papered” in velvet, or else are hung with these really detailed tapestries that took decades to make. The beds look tiny in the large rooms.
Looking at the portraits, you are struck by how totally unattractive the monarchs are. Not at all like Snow White, or Cinderella, these people were just plain ugly. And just like your high school yearbook photo, I bet they’d be mortified to see what their hair style looks like today.
There are two gardens flanking the castle, both very formal, and both employing many people full time to just prune.
After all this walking through the gardens and along the river, we decided to stop in the little café at the chateau and have a bottle of Evian water with lemon and sureau flowers. What made this special was that they provided ice! Pretty rare to get ice with your water.
The napkins said, "Merci de votre visite.” We laughed; it reminded us of Spain.
You can walk the grounds of this chateau for free. The walkways are lined with trees, and the setting is spectacular.
This one is pretty remarkable for the sheer size of it, and the amount of roof points and peaks and spires and whodings.
Blois looked really grand, like some of the buildings along the Seine River in Paris. Elegant in its own way.
So we didn’t.
We spent the money at a little restaurant instead, La Détente Gourmande. It was getting into the afternoon, so we stopped for a glass of wine and a cheese plate. Gail had a strawberry and pear tart. It was a nice break from the traveling around.
I can see that this town would make a nice place to stay as well.
The chateau is like a huge castle, plopped right in the town, and there is a main street full of restaurants facing it. There are a couple walking streets that go on for a few blocks, filled with shops and little guest houses.
The church attached to the chateau has an interesting spire. Check out the photos.
They had colored canvas sun-shades flying down the streets, which made for a colorful walk.
The town is a lot like Chinon: narrow, along the river, with a castle. But it is a little larger, and felt very touristy, whereas Chinon feels a little more rustic, unpolished perhaps, less tourist-filled. That said, there are many restaurants, and more stores if you like that.
As we drove, we noticed many many wine caves, where you could stop and taste and buy. We didn’t stop at any because there were just too many choices, and I had to drive.
We went to a place called Musée Animé du Vin & de la Tonnelerie. The owner and chef is named Dédé la Boulange.
Seriously. He does not have a website, but the hours and location are here.
OK. So how to describe this place…
It is brightly colored inside, and mostly communal seating at large tables. The owner is a happy man, with large stomach, mustache, and a huge glass of red wine he carries everywhere, in his hand. It is a “local” place and he knew every single person that came in (except us) and they all knew each other as well.
There were two guys, on guitar and clarinet, playing jazz, and everyone knew them as well. They drank wine and took the occasional break for a smoke as they played.
When we entered, he pulled out two wine glasses and one weird-looking jug of white wine. Surprise! The jug poured two glasses at once! His eyes flew open wide and we all laughed in delight.
There is no real menu. There is a price list. It is this: you pay €20 and he will feed you. Included is coffee, dessert, and 25cl (third of a bottle) of wine.
OK.
The basis of the meal is Fouées. These are little pieces of like pita bread, in that they puff up. They are in random shapes, and are served hot. You get the “never ending” basket of those, replenished hot out of the oven.
Then, you stuff them yourself, with what you want out of the things he gives you. Tonight we had a dish of shredded pork, and some beans cooked in goose fat (like cassoulet beans). There was a tub of garlic butter, a tub of soft white goat cheese, and a salad of like baby lettuce in walnut oil.
I died at the salad. I could have just eaten that.
Each ingredient was great by itself, but combined, in any random order, and I mean ANY combination at all, well, it was just a real treat. I had pork and beans. I had pork, cheese and salad. Pork cheese and beans. It was all great.
Gail liked it because she could make hers vegetarian.
So, you just build and eat, build and eat, until you run out and are left craving more. I mean, I was full, but I wanted more.
Then there was the dessert and coffee. And then he brought over what may have been cognac for us, but it was a pretty stiff drink.
It was a fun experience and a great time.
I dropped Gail off at the room, and went out to take some last photos of Chinon. The sunset was beautiful, and the town gets quiet soon after dark. It is a peaceful place to visit.
In the morning as we packed up to head for Beynac-et-Cazenac on the Dordogne river, a hot air balloon drifted by our window. It was a nice last vision of Chinon.