Day71: St Michel-sur-Loire to Saumur. 75km, 4:55
There were some Americans from Boulder, Colorado staying at the Chambres de Hote who we had a long chat to over breakfast. We gave them the Rhino talk,
they were fascinated and we found that a lot of what we said was new to them.
We left a little later than usual as we thought we only had 45 km to go, as you can see it was a little more. It was cloudy and cool, but we soon warmed up as we made our way along the Loire, passed Brehemont, Ile St-Martin and la Croix Rouge where we left the Loire to wind our way inland over the flood plains through Avoine where we found an excellent Boucherie Charcuterie and bought a delicious picnic lunch. We continued to Savigny-en-Veron to the La Vienne river. We passed through beautiful villages and lush countryside, with fields of flowering sunflowers and ripening wheat. There were cattle grazing along the polder that was built to stop flooding at the confluence of the Indre and Loire rivers. The land is very fertile here as a result of the flooding and the rich silt that is deposited on the banks. The sun tried hard all morning to make an appearance. It was only after our lunch stop that it managed to break through the cloud cover to give Gill and Mitch a little bit of a suntan.
We passed Rigney d' Usse where the enchanting fairy tale castle, Chateau d' Usse, with it's many turrets and towers guards the Indre Valley. Legend has it that it is this castle that inspired Charles Perraud when he wrote the famous fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty".
We followed the route above the Loire through historic towns and vineyards. It was a short steep climb to get onto the limestone ridge next to the vineyards. Most of these villages have limestone caves gouged out of the cliffs. Some of these have been imaginatively converted to shops, art galleries and perfect conditions in which to store wine.
The Chateau de Saumur is known for its beautiful light architecture, built of of the lovely soft local toffee au stone; it makes quite a statement as one enters the town. Saumur is situated between the Loire and Thoute rivers, and is surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye can see. Some excellent wines are produced here including the delicious Cremant de Loire and Cremant de Saumur which is the champagne of the region.
On our way to L'oiseau Blue, our Chambres de Hote, we passed the large Sparkling Wine house, Bouvet Ladubay, where we tasted the delicious sparkling wines. These are made mostly from Chennin Blanc and a small percentage of Chardonnay. The vintage sparkling wines are aged in oak barrels for a year. Bouvet Ladubay have been making sparkling wine since 1851, and at the turn end of the 19th century were the biggest producer in France. They have 8 km of tunnels behind the winery for storage of their wines.
We enjoyed our Chambres de Hote, L'oiseau Bleu - the rooms were charming and the roses planted in the driveway all mean something to the friendly owner, Serge.
Gilly and Mitch treated us to an excellent gourmet dinner at L' Aromate in the town. This is a superb restaurant run by a husband and wife team. The combination of flavours is so well thought out and work very well to create innovative dishes from the region. We cycled down to the restaurant and had to cycle up a steep hill on the way back but it was worth it as it was an absolutely delicious dinner.
The excellent restaurant where we were treated to dinner.
Love those sunflowers. Your pics are good as always, and nice to see Gilly in them too.
ReplyDeleteAnd well done on the recent 4000kms, really impressive!