Loire Diary - June 2010

27/07/10

Monday 21st June

Now we’re properly relaxed and in holiday mood, it’s time for our first foray into regions previously unexplored – we drive to our next destination, Céré-la-Ronde, near Tours. I actually get to drive! Which is not as alarming as I was expecting. Everyone else on the road, after all, is also driving on the ‘wrong’ side – and it’s actually very difficult to take the wrong direction on the roundabout. Since S is therefore navigating, he gets to take me on a magical mystery tour, looking for our home for the next five nights. Well, I asked to stay in a chateau… and what a chateau! This is like a luxury hotel, complete with its own menagerie of llamas, wild boar, sheep, horses…

I’ve been really looking forward to some real French cooking and we head out to Montrichard with mouths watering. Nothing looks inviting so it’s off to Chenonceaux, where we know there are several very nice hotel/restaurants. Unfortunately, we’re not quite in tune yet with continental meal-times and none of them are yet prepared to serve non-residents (even with a drink!) Eventually, stomachs complaining, we end up in St Aignan at a very pretty hotel on the banks of the river. The waiters are prompt and quietly spoken in the quiet restaurant – well it isn’t quite yet high season after all – but we remain thwarted by the most bizarre meal, nothing like the traditional French cuisine I’d so been looking forward to! At least I’m avoiding putting on any weight so far… except through alcohol.


Tuesday 22nd June

The weather had grown steadily warmer the further south we ventured yesterday and this morning dawns hot and sunny. S is delighted to find several swifts’ nests, complete with young, in the roof space above our room.

Villandry is our first stop today, hailed in the guide book as the chateau with the best gardens, as this is the only chateau whose gardens are kept in the traditional manner: combining flowers and vegetables in a functional but also aesthetic layout. The chateau was bought by the great-grandfather of the present owner in 1906 and subsequently restored to its original design.

We head into Tours after lunch and end up the main square, watching the second half of what turns out to be France’s last world cup match. The locals are rather half-hearted in their support, after all the press reports of fallings-out with the coach, mutiny by the players and the exit of Anelka for his dissent with team management. Of all the French people we have discussed it with, no-one has a good word to say of Domineck – a view also shared by the French sixth-form student who strikes up a conversation with us.










Wednesday 23rd June

Wednesday morning we take refuge from the increasing heat in the Troglodyte Caves near Vouvray. With 750 metres’ worth of tunnels and at a maximum temperature of 13 degrees, this is a very atmospheric and slightly eerie experience. It’s also informative, the caves having been formed by the mining of tofu (pronounced too-fuh) which was used to build the chateaux (there are a lot of similar caves in the area). After the mining, the caves were inhabited and I am amused to find, even down here, a Rue de la Rèpublique.





We reach the winery in Vouvray to take the tour slightly later than anticipated, having been delayed just outside Tours by a flat tyre (luckily, S being the eternal boy scout, we have a full-size spare). It takes a while to get the most out of the wine tour, the guide speaking perfect English but with a very thick Loire accent. This must be why, even though I’ve been trying to use my French as far as possible, that everyone keeps replying to us in English… ! So S now begins to tease me about my lack of French accent (though Isabelle tells me it’s actually very good. It might be; it’s just not from the Loire, obviously).

After stopping to buy a bottle of their 2009 (I later learn, back in England, that 2009 is expected to be one of the best years) we make for Amboise. Over more Leffe Ruby (yum) we are entertained by a very enthusiastic American, cheering on his team against Algeria. We end the day back at the chateau, in the garden watching the sun go down, finishing the jaffa cakes and bottle of red we brought with us from Normandy.


Thursday 24th June

We have a long drive this morning as we plan to visit Orleans. The city was much damaged during the war and unfortunately much of its architecture is therefore post-war.
We drive on to Chartres, another place I particularly wanted to visit, the cathedral being a draw for pilgrims through the ages – architectural as well as religious: Chartres was the first to use flying buttresses as a support for a light and airy central nave structure and therefore would have felt very different to congregations used to the old style of church architecture. Along with the 176 stained-glass windows it would have been – and still is – a magnificent sight. Currently in the process of being cleaned, if you imagine the newly-built cathedral in fresh creamy stone with the sun flooding through the intricate windows – it must have been fantastic.


On then to Blois for dinner, another Loire town that has grown up around a tightly packed medieval centre of narrow cobbled streets. Another World Cup match to watch over dinner – this time Japan v. Denmark – but without any Japanese or Danes to make it more interesting.


Friday 25th June

This morning, S is being a little more cagey than usual about our first destination. We pull through a set of rather imposing gates, with no discernable change in the general layout of the road or landscape and S announces ‘this whole area is still owned by the castle that it’s named for’. This can only be Chambord, who’s chateau is described rather aptly as having a roof resembling a crowded chessboard.

The castle itself is huge and takes the greater part of the day to explore – and I swear the part open to the public still only scratches the surface of what’s actually here. Most impressive are the double-helix staircases (two staircases in one stairwell, what warped and feverishly genius mind conceived that?) and the roof space, which can also be explored in all its Alice in Wonderland glory.

Today is the hottest so far and the lake in front of the castle looks very inviting. I guess a €20/half an hour boat hire is a little on the pricey side, but what the hell? We’re on holiday – and how fabulous to have the little lake to ourselves. It means we also get a perspective of Chambord that we would not otherwise have seen.







Partly in a bid to beat the heat, we head upwards next, to Sancerre, perched almost precariously as it is at the top of a hill. A pretty little town, very easy to explore and, from the keep at the top of the hill, with fabulous views of the surrounding countryside. Which is absolutely dominated by vines, as far as the eye can see, in every direction (predictably enough, I guess).

The charm of Sancerre notwithstanding, we decide to press on to Bourges for dinner, which turns out to be a good choice. Hindsight being the wonderful gift it is, I am glad now that I enjoyed the duck as much as I did… but more of this, later.