Garlic, honey and a surprise visit

Our annual holiday wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the weekly market of Bourgueil. It takes place every Tuesday in and around the old ‘halles’. With its approximately 150 stalls, it’s the second biggest in the Indre-et-Loire after the Sunday market of Amboise.

This year we set out for Bourgueil right after breakfast. The drive from Vouvray to Bourgueil takes about one hour by the ‘route départementale’ D952. There is a faster way, by the A85 motorway, but being on vacation we prefer the scenic route along the Loire River and through the picturesque villages of Luynes, Cinq-Mars-La-Pile (with his strange and mysterious tower), Langeais, Saint Patrice, Ingrandes and Restigné. This time we had an extra reason for driving through Restigné, as we wanted to make a surprise visit to fellow blogger Amy. We didn’t know her address and it took us some detective work – Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot would have been proud of us - to find her. It wasn’t too difficult though, as Restigné is a tiny village and Amy is the only American woman living there.

Amy used to write this interesting and extremely amusing blog about her life in France. Right now she’s taking a break to write a book. Although we came unannounced and in spite of the fact that we had never met before, she immediately made us feel very welcome. She showed us her ‘boulangerie’, a side building of the farmhouse that they are in the process of restoring. In the quiet of this ‘boulangerie’ she has set up her laptop to write. Next she invited us into the house, where we sat chatting for half an hour, sipping a refreshing glass of water. As we didn’t want to take up too much of her time, we left soon after that. It was lovely meeting her. She’s a very talented writer, and I’m sure that her book will be a great success.

By the time we arrived in Bourgueil it was almost eleven o’clock. We didn’t need any picnic supplies as we had enough cheese and charcuteries left from the day before. However, there were two items that I absolutely wanted to buy: honey vinegar and fresh pink garlic. We buy them each year at the same stalls. The honey lady has a large range of different sorts of honey and honey related products. The vinegar - especially the garlic flavoured one - gives green salads an original twist.

Picture: Bourgueil market - honey lady in the foreground and garlic lady in the background.

We buy the fresh pink garlic from a smiling little old lady, who’s selling different produce from her own garden. The garlic is delicious when fresh, and dries very well. By buying ten heads in June, I usually have enough garlic to last me till the end of the year.

Dining guests at my house are definitely in for some garlicky dishes during the coming months. Maybe I should get some after dinner mints, shouldn’t I?

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