Update #1 from Loire Valley France

            Sunday, April 15, 2012 – We’re on the move again today, driving to our next accommodation in the Western Loire Valley to “La Bagatelle” in the village of Vernoit de Fourrier, north of the city of Samur.  We had a 440 km drive from where we were staying.  Basically we drove the autoroute past Bordeaux, up in the direction towards Paris.  We stopped for a very expensive lunch along the route at one of the rest area stops.  No wonder we see many people sitting around picnic tables eating a bagged lunch. 

            We noticed driving north, the exit to Cognac – M suggested we make a side trip to check it out.  We missed the first exit, but we were able to take the next one, at Saintes, to drive the 30 km or so to check out Cognac.  On the way towards Cognac we saw this picturesque lane, and this wonderfully manicured roundabout.

 Being Sunday, there was very little traffic within the city centre.  We had no trouble at all negotiating the narrow one-way cobbled streets in the vieux ville.  Some neat old buildings, many have bleached stone exteriors.  We were able to see the headquarters of J Hennessey – our cognac of choice we enjoy back in Canada!  T said “M you don’t need to buy any cognac in Cognac as we were already well stocked with 2 bottles in the trunk!”  Took a few photos and then continued on our merry way.  This had to be one of the quietest towns we have been through – maybe everyone was at home having lunch!  After all, it was during the usual French 12- 2 lunch break. 

            The landscape becomes hillier with more crops grown than vineyards.  We see numerous fields in brilliant yellow – we’re thinking mustard.  

We left the autoroute near Niorte , to begin our drive past Parthenay through Samur onto our little village.  We catch the odd glimpse of stately chateaux that we might want to check out.  The Loire Valley is known for grand chateaux, so we’ll likely be checking out a few places. 

            Our accommodation turns out to be a one level home, quite nice.  It has a pool that has been heated, however, not too sure it’s going to be warm enough to enjoy it.  Tonight for dinner we have canard confit – duck that has been encased in its own fat/grease, and available in the stores in a can.  When we opened the can both M and T marveled at the amount of grease/ fat surrounding the pieces of duck. We warmed it in the oven causing the grease to melt away and we thoroughly enjoyed this French dish.  We’ll be having this again, delicious! M noted he is becoming quite fond of  duck and finds the canard dans une boîte – trés magnifique. 

            J decided that it was his night to Skype some of his family, so he made a number of calls and we found several at home. It was great to chat with those home. We even have some great scenery out our back door.

  

            Monday, April 16, 2012 – Our first day in the western Loire Valley.  All three of us went shopping at the local Super U in the town.  The shopping expedition took a while as we decided to check out the DVD section.  This week we don’t have English TV, and an evening movie is very enjoyable for us. We picked up a number of things for the week and returned back to our place to have lunch.            

            The Loire Valley is known for its chateaux and this afternoon we’re off to check one out.  We did a bit of research and decided to check out Chateau Villandry located about 40 km southeast of us.  The drive to Villandry was along country roads with beautiful scenery.

At one point, we could see a large chateau through the trees along the road, so T had M pull over so she could hope out and wander along the lane to get a shot (there was even an ariel view on the sign so we could see the entire layout).

Along some of the drive it was heavily wooded and had what looked like hunting stations/stands stationed along each side of the road.  M had read in a magazine that hunting takes on a whole new meaning in France.  The guideline from the article said “Hunting rules are a little different in France than elsewhere, so as a general guideline, one should not go for a walk in the woods on Sunday anywhere in France from Sept. to May.” That got M’s attention.

            The chateau is located on the edge of the village of Villandry and blends in well, right along the main road.  Once our entrance fee is paid – to tour the gardens and T acquires an audioguide, we are off to explore the immense gardens.

This chateau was built in the 1500’s, yet has been in the Carvallo family since 1906 and they wanted to make it available to the public to enjoy, both the chateau and the gardens.  Overtime, the family has worked to restore the grounds as well as the chateau.  As J said, “it’s the grandest gardens I’ve ever seen”, grand being the word.  It was an impressive sight looking down on the gardens from the belvedere on the adjacent hillside (as the sign said we were near the belvedere, M wondered if this was him).

There were three levels of gardens supported by a natural spring: the top water gardens, the second tier ornamental gardens and then the kitchen gardens.  Even though it was fairly early in the spring, there was great color provided by tulips and pansies as well as many plants of varying colors.

We spent over an hour wandering the grounds.  J and T even found a maze to wander through to see who would reach the raised center platform.  J beat T.  The chateau even had a moat surrounding part of it that they now use for recycling their water.  It was a fabulous experience and we look forward to seeing other ones in this region.

            Our drive home, we took a different route with some more great scenery, taking us near the entrance of the village of Langeais.  We crossed one of the coolest bridges we have ever crossed.

Kind of reminded us of medieval times, with four towers – very cool.  We had pizza for dinner then watched one of our newly purchased DVD’s, “The Green Hornet”, not the world’s best plot but good for a few laughs.

            Tuesday, April 17, 2012 – Rainy day off and on.  We went for a walk, but had to bundle up as it was blustery!  Had a problem with the washing machine today – it wouldn’t open after the cycle.  We had to leave a message for Lionel- managed to get the message across in French and he arrived after work.   He wasn’t able to fix it, didn’t have his tools, so he’ll return tomorrow.  Good thing we didn’t have this happen to us on Friday!

            Since we had the issue with the machine, it was raining,  and waiting for Lionel, we didn’t go out exploring.  We did however, have a day of reading, homework.  We decided to try cooking tandori chicken – J had a couple of helpings and said it was good.  Decided to watch the movie “Loup” about a Siberian family who herds reindeer.  It was a great story with amazing footage of the tundra.  Of course we shared our prerequisite microwave popcorn that we have found over here – it’s very good.

            Wednesday, April 18, 2012 – Another mixed weather day in the Loire valley, but we’re going out to explore just the same.  After getting organized we are off to Tours to buy an external hard drive for our Mac as we have a ton of photos of the adventure that we want to back up.  We chose a different route to get to Tours – it’s not hard to find a different one as there are tons of paved secondary roads all over the place in this country.  We arrived in Tours around 1pm and decided to find a restaurant to eat.  We found a great local eatery full of locals and had a leisurely “French lunch” leaving at 2:30!  When we left some of the patrons that had been there before us, were still there!  It was a great experience, as many of the diners seemed to know each other as well as the owner of the bar/restaurant. 

            We chose from the menu of the day posted on the blackboards, each having three courses.  Of course, we had to sample a glass of the local Loire wines.  T had some kind of sausage, but had no idea what was inside it, but it tasted good.  Even though we know many French words, we had to laugh at the number of ones we still didn’t know that were listed on the menu board. Sometimes it’s fun to just go with trying a local dish. 

            We drove along the shore a bit before crossing the Loire to find the computer store.  We quickly found what we needed and then headed out back across the river to travel along the shore to Langeais.  

We checked out Chateau Langeais, which is located in the centre of the town, so its hard to get good photos.  It was once a fortress, then became a residence added onto over time.  It was owned by royalty at one time, eventually it was purchased by a Frenchman who restored it in the late 1800’s- early 1900’s and upon his death left it to the Institut de France that ensures it’s well looked after for people to enjoy. 

            After leaving Langeais, we crossed the bridge we had traveled over yesterday and traveled along the banks of the Loire yet again

 to the town of Ussé.  It was in this small town that Chateau Ussé is located.  It is said that Charles Perrault was inspired by this chateau to write the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.  This chateau is built just on the outskirts of the village and is built overlooking the road and the river.  It has similar features to Chateau Langeais, but has some terraced gardens.  We got out to take some photos and the sky decided to open into a deluge.  Good thing there were some big trees to help shield us.  A quick dash to the car saved us from getting too wet. 

            Our drive back was along another route, past a nuclear energy facility.  We had a chance to see the reactor building and cooling towers up pretty close.  France uses nuclear power to provide most of its electrical needs.   We enjoyed the afternoon drive.  After dinner, we decided to watch the movie “Gone Baby Gone”.

            Thursday, April 19, 2012 – Another take it easy morning, J continued working on his last LA unit – study of the novel “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe”.  We’ve been enjoying reading the story, then J does his assignments, while we did a few things around here. 

            After lunch, we went off to Saumur, the home of France’s national equestrian school as well as Chateau Saumur.  We enjoyed the drive through this pretty town with the Loire flowing through it.  Overlooking the river is Chateau Saumur, now owned by the city and it houses a couple of museums.  We found a parking spot to check out the town centre as well as do a couple of errands. We came across a number of cafés, something that we haven’t seen much of in the smaller towns.  It was a well laid out place, enjoyable to tour around. 

Next we went in search of a spot on the opposite shore of the Loire to take some shots of the chateau and surrounding buildings.  There’s the Notre Dame des Ardilliers with its rotunda, Eglise Saint-Pierre with its tall steeple.

            From Saumur, we were off to the village of Rochemeiner where there is a Troglodyte village to tour.  There are many examples of these villages within the Loire valley as well as a few other spots in France.  It’s an underground village.  This village has been dated back to the late 17^th, early 18^th century and had up to 250 underground buildings at one time, housing people that had about 40 farms.  Basically, the farmers dug out a courtyard first, then dug out their buildings under ground.  They kept their animals underground at night and had their gardens up above the buildings.  The ground is soft, so it was very easy to dig out.  They would sell the dug out rock to further develop and support themselves. 

                        We spent about an hour touring the village. It was fascinating to see the various facilities they built underground as well as the old types of equipment they used for farming, food processing, and daily living.  T bought an English guidebook that explained all of the 20 underground buildings we toured, and a general explanation of what life was like for the inhabitants. All three of us enjoyed this very interesting site.  Another really neat place we experienced.  People lived in these villages up to the first third of the 20^th century.  However, farming this way wasn’t economical, so they abandoned this type of farm.  In other parts of the Loire Valley, we have seen troglodyte homes that people continue to use – some for living in, some for storage, car garages along hillsides, etc.

            Once back at the gite, we had a late dinner and watched “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” for tonight’s entertainment.

            Friday, April 20, 2012 – We woke to sunshine, so we walked into town to get some fresh pain campagne for breakfast.  The round trip walk is about 15 min.  Nothing like fresh bread!  We’ve bought ourselves a little espresso pot, so M having perfected his technique, is preparing a rather delicious espresso in the morning.  Besides, in rural France, the coffee bars are not as prevalent as what we had gotten used to in Italy, Spain or Portugal.  The bakeries, however, make up for this misfortune. 

            This afternoon we drove to Chinon to check out yet another chateau, Chateau Chinon, actually a fortress at first.  It was used by numerous English royalty, Henry II and his son Richard the Lion Heart (was born here) and Dauphin Charles VII.  It was also where Joan of Arc was received to deliver her message to Charles to reclaim his kingdom.  It is a fortress that had been added onto over time.  It overlooks the river that offered a strategic position long ago.   It is on the cliff overlooking the medieval town that still exists today.  It is a protected site, so careful work has been ongoing to preserve it.  We drove around the village and got some cool shots, and took another leisurely drive through the French countryside on the way back to the apartment.

            This week we are switching moving days from Sunday to Saturday, as we are getting closer to the high season and in France the rental week in from Saturday to Saturday, so we need to switch over. For our last movie of this week T has chosen Casino Royale, another Bond flick.