La Prieuré Saint Léonard

1999 – Before the internet era, preparing a holiday in the Loire Valley wasn’t as easy as it is nowadays. At the time the company I'm still working for was located in the centre of Brussels, right across the Royal Palace and within walking distance of the Avenue Louise (Brussels’ ‘Champs Elysées), the city’s most exclusive and expensive shopping boulevard.
The boulevard leading to the Avenue Louise is called ‘l’Avenue de La Toison d’Or’ (boulevard of the Golden Fleece). On it is the ‘Maison de la France’, the French House of Tourism. During lunch break I used to walk over there and gather all the brochures and leaflets that I could find about the Loire Valley and the places to visit. These documents only mentioned the most famous châteaux such as Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise, Villandry, Chinon, etc. though.
During our first visit in 1999 we were on our way to Chinon when a signpost with the name ‘L’Ile Bouchard’ caught my attention. ‘L’Ile’ (the isle) is one of those words that always tickle my curiosity. So I urged my friend to take the next road on the left in the direction of l’Ile Bouchard. It turned out to be a charming little town with less than 2000 inhabitants. The Vienne River cuts it in two halves called Saint Gilles and Saint Maurice. In the middle of the river are two islands, to which the town probably owns its name. The town square, with a modern market hall all made of glass and steel, is located on the larger of these two isles. We stopped there for a drink in a bar, from where we had a lovely view of the bridge and de town’s flower decorations.
We had entered l’Ile Bouchard coming from the north. Leaving it by the road leading south I noticed another road sign. This time it was one of those brown/white things that indicate the presence of a tourist site. It read: La Prieuré Saint Léonard (Saint Leonard’s Priory). I glanced through our tourist guide book of the Chinon area, but found no mention of this edifice. Arriving at the spot, the place was completely deserted. The ruins only consisted of the church’s choir section and its side chapels.


We were looking around when a small yet buxom lady arrived carrying a little cardboard box. She looked at the license plate of the car and shouted “Ah, des Belges!” “Would you like a guided tour?” As she didn’t exactly look like a professional tourist guide we hesitated. “Come on” she said and herded us in the direction of the choir. She told us that the Priory church was built in the 11^th century and then explained in detail the religious significance of the small statues that decorate the top of the pillars. She seemed to be very knowledgeable about what she called ‘her’ priory.
The ‘guided tour’ took half an hour, after which the lady said that she lived across the road - that she was an active member of the local association that tried to ‘save’ the priory from further decay - and would we please like to contribute by making a small donation? During the entire visit she had held on to the cardboard box as if it was a valuable treasure. Now she opened it and took out a colourful pin representing the silhouette of the priory. “Here,” she said “that’ll be five francs (+/- 75 eurocents)”, leaving us very little choice about a possible donation! We gladly gave her the money, however, as thanks to her we had learned something about the priory that probably very few tourists knew. I wonder if she's still there giving guided tours to gullible tourists venturing that way.

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The Unicorn

I’m currently preparing our upcoming weekend trip to the French Alsace. On the way down to Strasbourg we’ll certainly be making a’ pit stop’ in Saverne, the charming town where we stayed last year and the year before. The town’s emblem is a unicorn. I had read on the internet that there was a statue of this mythical animal in the town square. Although very beautifully and delicately sculptured, it turned out to be a tiny little thing - so tiny even that we overlooked it during our first visit in 2007.

'La Licorne' – French for The Unicorn is also the name of the local lager type beer. Belgium being a beer country, we are very particular when it comes to beer. Most French beers, such as 'Kronenbourg', are much too sweet for our taste buds, which are used to the more bitter tasting Belgian brands. And even the Belgian 'Stella Artois' that is brewed for the export market lacks the required bitterness. We therefore rarely drink beer when travelling in France.

The Unicorn or 'Licorne' beer, however, is an exception. I remember having our first 'Licorne' experience sitting in the sun on a sidewalk terrace in the town square of Saverne in September 2007.

Imagine our surprise last year when we found that the little bar – 'Le Bouchon' – down the road of our chambre d’hôtes in Vouvray serves this brand of beer too! 'Le Bouchon' is a small bar with a charming young landlady V. who’s on first name basis with all her patrons. Last year as well as this summer, we made a habit of stopping there after returning from our daily excursion to savour a refreshing 'Licorne' – or two – on the little terrace overlooking the town. Very soon we got to know the locals...

Evening sky over Vouvray, seen from the sidewalk terrace of 'Le Bouchon'

There was the town’s gardener, looking very skinny and tanned, who introduced himself as the ‘employé communal’ (town’s clerk!), in blue working clothes, who dropped in every evening after work to have his two ‘panachés’ (beer and lemonade). And the couple living next door minding their 1,5 year old grandson, which mainly meant following him around and preventing him from running out into the road. We had a long talk with an elderly man who turned out to be a jack of all trades who had lived all over France and had now retired in Vouvray. To keep himself occupied he kept bees and made his own honey. He was trying to get a license as a market vendor to sell his produce in the area.

By our third visit in 2008 the landlady as well as the other patrons had accepted us as one of them. Every afternoon, when we dropped in for our daily 'Licorne', they asked what we had been up to during the day. They were very interested in the sites we had visited. Very often they hadn’t been to these places themselves or hardly knew that they existed.

When we returned to 'Le Bouchon' this year, our 'Licornes' were waiting for us on one of the tables on the terrace. V., the landlady, had recognized the car when we drove up to the bar and had anticipated our thirst! Shortly after we’d arrived, the town’s gardener and the couple next door showed up. We were greeted like old-time friends who had returned from a long journey …

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Wishing well

2005 - Halfway between Chinon and Richelieu stands ‘Le Rivau’. The history of this castle is closely linked to the Beauvau family. Related to the Counts of Anjou, they had the privilege from the 11th century on to pledge league to their suzerain “with the sword in hand, standing upright and wearing one’s hat.”

In the 14th century the owner received the right to fortify his ‘dwelling’ by adding a moat, ramparts, cannon stands and trenches. Over the 15^th and 16^th century the castle was frequently remodelled. Later large parts of it were sold off or partially torn down. It took till 1992 for the present owners to re-acquire the last buildings that had passed into strange hands over the years. Thanks to their relentless efforts and restoration work the Château du Rivau is today one of the great castle of the Unesco Heritage Site Loire Valley.

Today the outside walls and the ground floor have been completely restored and the château, sitting in its valley surrounded by fields of bright yellow sunflowers, offers a pristine and bright sight to passers-by and visitors.

When we were there in 2005 the little pond in the yard held a strange collection of stoneware figurines. Between them a small flock of yellow and black ducklings was happily swimming around encouraged by there parents. They seemed to take great pleasure from climbing up a small ladder leading to their nest cage some 20 cm higher up, after which they merrily jumped into the water again, frantically flapping their little wings. This enchanting scene kept us amused for 10 minutes, after which we crossed the drawbridge leading into the castle.

Happy little ducklings!

The ticketing office also acts as a souvenir shop selling mainly garden related objects. The large open door at the other end of the building leads into the castle’s courtyard. By the door stands a large bowl with pink sweets. A sign invites you to take a sweet that you can then either eat … or throw in the wishing well in the middle of the courtyard. Guess what I did?

The upper floors still being under restoration, you only get to see the ground floor. One of the rooms has a large decorated open fire place. A sturdy looking table holding an impressive collection of (fake) fruit and vegetables dominates the room.

Outside again you can visit the impressive gardens. The ‘enchanted’ forest is decorated with the strangest fairytale-like creatures: garden gnomes made of chicken wire, a collection of giant bodiless legs of up to 8 meters tall, called the ‘running forest’, etc.

It was rather chilly that day in 2005 and so we visited only a small part of the gardens. But on a sunny day you can easily spend two hours just wandering around, taking in the beauty of the castle’s gardens, fields and woods, hoping that the wish you made earlier, while throwing the pink sweet in the well, will come true.

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Hurluberlu

If you are French, you might think I'm calling you names ... but I'm not. Let me explain!

2008 - The French word ‘hurluberlu’ means ‘oddball’ in English. On www.dictionary.com the definition for ‘oddball’ reads: “a person or thing that is atypical, bizarre, eccentric, or nonconforming, especially one having beliefs that are unusual but harmless.”

We came across this odd character – although it wasn’t a human being - in the restaurant ‘L’Hélianthe’ in Turquant, where we had lunch in June 2008. You can read all about this pleasant experience here.

When asking the waiter for some advice on what wine to have with our meal, he suggested a Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil by M. David. This particular wine is made according to the new bio-something process, which is an upcoming trend in the Loire region. It goes back to the original grape growing and winemaking techniques in harmony with nature and with respect for the environment. I won’t go into all the details here as it far to complex to explain.

The wine came in a transparent odd shaped bottle, which is quite unusual for red Loire wines. The bright red cork was made of plastic. This may seem unnatural, but it is done to preserve the cork trees … or so we were told. The wine, which was served slightly chilled, turned out to be light and refreshing. It had little to do with the usual dark and rather robust Saint Nicolas wines. It would probably never win a prize in a wine competition but was nevertheless very pleasant to drink on a warm summer day.

My friend, who’s always interested in the unusual, decided that it would make an excellent barbecue wine and asked for the ‘vigneron’s’ address. The waiter gave us very detailed instructions and phoned Mr. David to see whether he could receive us that same afternoon. Guided by the waiter’s map we found the vineyard quite easily. Mr. David explained that he was making the classic Saint Nicolas, while his son was ‘experimenting’ with this new technique. We tasted both and ended up buying 18 bottles of ‘Hurluberlu’ and a 5 litre BIB (bag-in-box) of traditional ruby red Saint Nicolas. Mr. David even supplied us with the necessary labels to stick on the Saint Nicolas after bottling.

The odd shaped Hurluberlu bottle and bright red plastic cork.

That evening we had invited our friend and now retired two star Michelin chef J.B. and his wife S. for drinks at our ‘chambre d’hôtes’. J.B. owns a private wine collection of over 17.000 bottles from his former restaurant in Tours. I warned my friend that it wasn’t a good idea to serve the ‘Hurluberlu’ to a wine ‘connaisseur’ as J.B., because he would certainly throw a fit seeing the plastic cork! He served the bottle anyway … and J.B. reacted as I’d expected and started complaining about the way wines are being made nowadays. Nevertheless, he finished the glass we had poured him to wash down the baguette and rillettes that we had set out to accompany our drinks.

Just when he noticed that the label read: ‘Contient du soufre volcanique’ (contains volcanic sulphur) the bright red cork that we had put back in place after serving the first round of drinks, popped out of the bottle all by itself, landing in front of J.B.’s glass. Slightly embarrassed, my friend and I looked at each other. And then J.B., burst out laughing. “Yes, that's definitely volcanic sulphur!” he said with his usual aplomb.

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18th Century Marketing

2009 - Seen in a side street of Amboise: mannequin in 18th century outfit showing the way to a local restaurant

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Soap

There is ‘Candes Saint-Martin’ and then there is ‘Martin de Candre’. To make it even more confusing both are hardly 5 km apart. Except for their name, they have nothing in common, though. By now you know that Candes Saint Martin is one of the most picturesque villages in the Loire Valley, while Martin de Candre is the name of a small, privately owned soap factory. Here soap is still made according to the traditional ‘Marseille’ method. All the ingredients and perfumes are of 100% vegetal origin.
Unfortunately, you can’t visit the actual workshop as apparently soap making is a risky business. A mixture of vegetal oil (olive, palm, copra …) and soda is heated to a very high temperature. None of the synthetic ingredients that are currently used to control the chemical reaction are added. At 110°C the ‘saponification’ process results in an extremely ‘capricious’ paste. When not controlled by an experienced soap master, the hot past will boil over and project hot blobs of soap all over the place.

Perfume being added to the oil & soda mixture

While the mixture is still hot, perfume is added. At the end of the boiling process the soap paste is coloured using exclusively natural ingredients such as essential oils, balms, milk, honey, etc. It is left to cool and set in large wooden moulds. 24 hours later the giant blocs of still slightly warm and tender soap are cut into regular soap cakes, varying from 55 gr. (small guest soaps) to 300 gr. (large cakes of household soap). The company’s logo ‘Martin de Candre’ is applied using a bronze stamp.


The cakes are then ready to be packed. This is done manually and with great precision. The finished product is an attractive little or big cake of soap with a distinctive authentic look.
All this is explained in the little museum and shop at the ‘Domaine de Mestré’ near the village of Fontevraud l’Abbaye. The Domaine used to be the main farm of the nearby Abbaye de Fontevraud. The chapel and two other buildings from the 12^th and 13^th century still exist. The Domaine also has three guest rooms and three family suites, ranging from 52 euros to 150 euros per night (the latter with two bathrooms and a sleeping capacity of four adults).
We’ve never stayed there, but the place looks very inviting indeed. On two occasions – the last time in 2007 if my memory serves me right – we visited the museum and the little shop to buy some presents for our friends and family. I remember getting a set of three little guest soaps with different fragrances and an embroidered guest towel attractively packed in a cellophane wrapping. I also bought a 300 gr. cake of plain household soap which it great for removing stains.
The hostess is very helpful and always happy to explain the virtues of her soap. Apparently the palm oil variety has the best skin protection qualities, which makes it very popular with surgeons who have to wash their hands frequently and thoroughly. To prove her point she even gave us a free sample. After using it, I almost blamed myself for not becoming a surgeon …

Photos borrowed from the website of 'Martin de Candre'.
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Another lovely place to eat

2007 – The dozen or so bottles of Noblé Joué ‘vin gris’ that we bought during our visit of the Frères Rousseau’s winery in 2006 didn’t last very long. Noble Joué makes a great summer wine to accompany typical summer meals such as a barbecue or what we in Belgium call an ‘assiette anglaise’ - English plate -(cold meat cuts, green salad, tomatoes, cold cooked cauliflower and hard boiled eggs).
We therefore returned to the winery in Esvres-sur-Indre in 2007 to get some more of this delicious liquid. This time we were greeted by Mrs. Rousseau senior. When we told her that we had visited the winery the year before, her already wide smile broadened even more. We re-tasted the wines we had bought last year and also tried the most recent ‘vendange’.
My friend also had a pinot noir, which turned out to be very nice. So on top of the 36 bottles of Noble Joué, he bought a 5 litre ‘BIB’ (bag-in-box) of red pinot noir.
It was a rather ‘chilly, overcast day with occasional showers’ (as the weather people would say). This was no picnic weather. We therefore asked Mrs. Rousseau if she knew of a little restaurant where we could have a light lunch. She mentioned several places, but recommended the ‘Auberge du Mail’ in Cormery, some 5 km upstream the Indre River.
Her instructions being very clear, we had no trouble finding the restaurant. It’s located in the village main square. The weekly market was just packing up when we arrived, leaving us ample parking space. The place looked very attractive and inviting, with a large terrace covered in vines. Inside, next to the income hall was a small private dining room, where a large round table was set for a party of seven or eight.
On the other side of the income hall was a door leading into the main dining room. It had a beautiful open fire place in one corner and the tables had pristine white linen tablecloths and silver cutlery. A cheerful young waitress asked whether we had a reservation. She became very thoughtful when we said we didn’t. “I’ll have to ask ‘le patron’ first.” she said, and walked away. A few minutes later the ‘patron’ himself walked in with the waitress right behind him and he showed us to a round table for two. “We are very busy today”, he explained “but I can just fit you in”.
While we were studying the menu card, people started to arrive. Half an hour later the place was packed. The waitress brought us some home made bread, that was still warm and a little ramekin with lightly salted butter that melted beautifully as soon as you we put it on the oven warm bread. We didn’t take any ‘entrée’ as we had a gastronomic dinner waiting for us that evening at our hotel. My friend chose the ‘Géline de Touraine’ with a goat cheese sauce, while I had steak in a syrupy red wine sauce. Both dishes were delicious. Not having a sweet tooth we declined dessert, but went for the cheese platter, which was impressive.

This lovely cheese platter at the 'Remparts restaurant' in Amboise represents
only 1/3 of the one we saw at 'L'Auberge du Mail'.

By the time we had finished our lunch the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. So we sat on the terrace enjoying our coffee with ‘mignardises’. You’ll find the ‘Auberge du Mail’ at number 2, at the Place du Mail in Cormery.

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Naughty kitten

2006 - Thanks to – my friend would say ‘due to’ - my passion for cooking and kitchens we’ve visited many a castle kitchen over the years. Some are very austere, like the old kitchen building of the Abbey of Fontevraud.

The round building, which looks a bit like an igloo with a pointed roof, is entirely made of white-greyish stonework. Inside there is no furniture, nor kitchen equipment on display. High above the slightly blackened sidewalls, where the fireplaces used to be, spherical holes act as chimneys. According to the visitor’s guide leaflet each fireplace had a very distinctive purpose: one for cooking meat, the other for boiling vegetables, a third one housed the abbey’s bread oven, and so on. It’s a very strange building, where even the slightest whisper is echoed by the pointed spherical dome.

Fontevraud: kitchen dome

There is another château however, that has a nice collection of kitchenware on display. It’s the Château of Montpoupon. Although most people will visit the castle for its ‘Musée du Veneur’ (Museum of the Master of the Hunt), the interior with its splendid tapestries, valuable furniture and anecdotic kitchen scene caught our attention. Inside the castle five rooms are open to visitors. When you step into a room, a sound tape is automatically switched on. You hear the so-called voice of the late Marquis and his daughter, with the daughter asking questions about the history and the contents of the room. The Marquis explains everything in a fatherly way, attracting the visitors’ attention to the main features. Each scene takes about three to five minutes … just long enough to learn something without getting bored.

To get to the kitchen, you have to leave the main building and enter the kitchen by the backdoor. There is no sound tape here, but the objects on display hardly need any explanation. Except for the heavy metal bars, separating the public area from the display, the kitchen looks as if its occupants have left it just a few minutes before you arrived. The food is a fake of course … and so is the naughty kitten that has just knocked an egg of a side table. The egg – also a fake one – is lying broken on the floor. With a frightened look in its eyes, the kitten is hiding under the side table, waiting to be scolded by an angry cook.

Montpoupon kitchen: notice the naughty kitten in the left corner
(I borrowed this picture from the Montpoupon website, as the one took in 2006 has the metal bars in it)

Metal bars, spoiling the view, were put in only recently to avoid people handling the objects … as did a colleague of mine some years ago. The plastic roasted chicken looked so real to her, that she couldn’t resist touching it … which set off the alarm! Now tell me, who's the naughty one?

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La Dame de Monsoreau

2005 - In the 80-ties and 90-ties we often spent a holiday or a long weekend in the Champagne region, in the North-East of France. It was during one of these stays that we visited the house in Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne Department) where the famous French novelist Alexandre Dumas was born in 1802. I’ve mentioned him in an earlier post about the Cardinal de Richelieu as the author of the novel ‘The Three Musketeers’, which he wrote in 1844.

Two years later, in 1846, he wrote ‘La Dame de Monsoreau’. We came across this notorious beauty in 2005, when we visited the Château de Montsoreau (no, this isn’t a typing error: the Château is written ‘Montsoreau’ – with a ‘t’, while the lovely lady’s name is ‘Monsoreau’ – without a ‘t’).

You’ll find the Château on the Quai Alexandre Dumas on the road that runs from Candes Saint-Martin to Saumur. It almost literally ‘sits’ in the water. Long before the road and quays were built the Loire River directly supplied the necessary water to fill the castle’s moat. Nowadays the road between the castle’s rampart and the River bank is hardly large enough to accommodate two cars passing at the same time.

Montsoreau castle seen from across the Loire River.

One of the most remarkable architectural features of the castle is the way in which it creates a link between the Middle Ages and ‘modern’ times. The austere North side was clearly built and meant to be a feudal fortress, while the southern façade with his delicate renaissance characteristics is far more attractive and inviting.

Don’t expect to find four-poster beds in which the French kings or their wives and mistresses slept, nor trunks, chairs, old chamber pots or other so-called authentic objects. Sitting on the River banks the castle has always been closely associated with life in and on the water The permanent exhibition is therefore completely dedicated to the Loire River. From the basement to the terraces overlooking the majestic stream, clever and artistic sound and light displays show you all there is to know about the Loire, its fauna and flora, the typical flat bottomed boats used by the local fishermen and the tradesmen who navigated upstream to carry the precious ‘sel de Guérande’ – coarse sea salt – and other merchandise from the coast of Brittany to the royal kitchens of the Loire Valley’s Châteaux.

From the top of the main tower you have a splendid view over the Loire and its confluent with the Vienne a bit further upstream.

And then of course there is ‘La Dame de Monsoreau’ herself. Her fictional story, based on real characters living in 16-17the century, is told and brought to life by her creator, Alexandre Dumas, in one of the rooms on the ground floor. It’s all about the love life and related intrigues of Françoise de Maridor, or Diane de Méridor as the main character is called in the book, her husband Charles de Chambes and her lover Louis Bussy d’Amboise.

Diane or Françoise – whichever you prefer - was renowned for her exceptional beauty, while her husband Charles was not exactly what you would call a knockout. As a direct descendant of Jean de Chambes, the man who built Montsoreau castle in the 15^the century and who was one of King Charles VII’s advisors, he was, however, held in very high esteem by his contemporaries … You want to know the whole story?

In that case you can either read the novel, visit the Château de Montsoreau or watch the brand new television film that will be broadcasted by France2 on August 26 and 27 at 8.35 p.m. (That’s if you live in France or Belgium or have satellite TV). The film was largely shot on location, so the images should be fabulous.

I'll certainly be watching it. Will you?

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The gardens at Valençay castle

2008 - The well-tended gardens on an overcast morning in June.

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Vineyard walk

2006 – If you read this blog regularly, you may have noticed that Candes St.Martin, at the confluent of the Loire and the Vienne River, is one of my favourite villages. Three years ago we decided to walk up the bluff overlooking the confluent and the village. On the website of the Office de Tourisme de Touraine, I had found a map with a 3 km itinerary through the village and the vineyard.

We left the car in the parking lot near the ‘Collégial’ church, and climbed up the steep alley. As it is paved with very old irregularly shaped cobblestones, you have to watch your step if you want to avoid twisting an ankle.

Arriving at the top of the bluff we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the view. There were the remains of an old watchtower and an orientation table indicating the direction and distance to the nearby towns of Saumur, Angers, Chinon … We stood there for several minutes, watching the tranquil flow of the majestic Loire and its tributary the Vienne merging into one. We were abruptly awoken from our reverie by the twitter of children’s voices. We turned around and saw a group of 20 or 30 so ten years olds walking and running towards the orientation table. Time for us to leave!

We studied the map describing the 3 km itinerary and discovered that we had taken the wrong turn at the top of the bluff. Instead of turning right, towards the ‘Vieux’ and ‘Nouveau Château’ of Candes – which by the way are of very little interest - we had taken left, towards the watchtower. We didn’t feel like going back and therefore decided to follow the itinerary clockwise instead of counter clockwise.

The narrow path leading towards the vineyard led us through an orchard. There was no fence and the dark red cherries were too inviting to resist. We picked several and ate them while we continued our walk. The black asphalt road reflected the heat of the sun and the sound of what I believed to be chirping crickets created an almost Mediterranean atmosphere. The singing crickets, however, turned out to be the noise made by the electric current speeding through the bulky high voltage cables supplying the village with electric power. There were several of these suspended over the vineyards.

It took us a little less than an hour to walk the 3 km, stopping from time to time to admire the scenery and to take some pictures. In spite of the heat it was a very nice and invigorating walk. We had worked up an appetite and drove to a nearby picnic area, on the banks of Loire River. There are several tables there, well set apart, offering a magnificent view of the Château de Montsoreau.

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Mediterranean lunch

2003 -The Festival International des Jardins at Chaumont-sur-Loire offers excellent catering facilities for hungry visitors. Like many others we found our way to the restaurant area. There are numerous possibilities.
If you simply want a drink or an ice cream, there is ‘Le Palais des Glaces’. At the ‘Estimanet’ you’ll find sandwiches, cakes, salads and hot and cold drinks.
There is a gastronomic restaurant as well, called ‘Le Grand Velum’. The menu card offers inventive and refined French cuisine.
We went for ‘Le Comptoir Méditérranéen’. Here you’ll enjoy an all-in formula (drinks excluded) for a fixed price. When you arrive you buy a ticket per person. This ticket includes an aperitif of fresh bio vegetable juice. There are three flavours. We both chose the carrot and poppy juice, which as absolutely delicious. Once you’ve chosen your aperitif and your wine or other beverage to accompany your meal, a waiter will lead you to your table. There you’ll find a large jar of tomatoes and onions marinated in olive oil flavoured with garden herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc. and a packet of bread sticks. You just eat as much as you can; you are even allowed to eat the whole content of the jar … which we didn’t!
After this spicy ‘antipasti’ you walk to the buffet were three cooks with woks will prepare your meal from the ingredients you have chosen yourself. There’s pasta, bio vegetables, meat, different kinds of olive oil and homemade sauces, herbs, edible flowers, etc. Once again … everything is ‘à volonté’ (eat as much as you can). For dessert there’s Italian ice cream and cake.


We really enjoyed our meal, as it was light and refreshing. The tables are set under a large open tent facing a pond with water lilies and a flowering baobab tree. Closer inspection of the baobab after lunch taught us that the trunk was made of cement and the flowers of plastic. This was a bit of a disappointment as from a distance it had looked very real and alive.

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Spoons, poles and plastic tunnels

After a good ten minutes of walking through the mystery forest – there was only one path, so you couldn’t get lost – we saw, some 20 metres ahead of us, a flimsy curtain floating in the wind. We walked up to it, pulled it aside and finally discovered the actual Festival Park. We had walked in through what appeared to be the ‘back wall’ of one of the gardens!

It had been raining the night before and the paths leading from one garden to another were quite muddy. There few people around and we could visit the 18 or so gardens in the best possible circumstances.

The 2003 theme was ‘Chaos’. Some gardens were simply beautiful, others were pure genius and some were very minimalist. We were surprised to find that one or two were even …‘ugly’.

The one I liked best was this ingenious combination of grass mats and spoons.

Large patches of grass had been lifted into the air on one side, where they were being supported by wooden stakes. Underneath them, shining tablespoon had been stuck upside down into the bare earth. The rounded surface of the spoons reflected the sunlight, and it was as if hundreds of sprinkling diamonds were laid out under the grass mats.

This minimalist garden was a collection of giant Mikado Sticks planted roughly into the ground, without any distinctive pattern or order. There were no flowers or plants to liven it up.

Any idea what the artist who made this plastic tunnel wanted to express?

We spent well over two hours wandering from one garden to another. The sun had come out and the wet ground was drying up nicely. All this walking had made us hungry and thirsty and we decided to make our way to the restaurant area of the Festival.

More about that tomorrow.

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Mystery forest

2003 - Spoons, poles, birdcages and plastic tunnels? What do all these have in common? The annual ‘Festival International des Jardins’ at the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire in 2003. This yearly event is really worth a detour. It is organized from the end of April till October, but the best time to visit it is the second half of June and all through July, when the gardens are at their best.

Within the castle’s grounds the festival park is divided in 26 allotments of 240 m² each. They are separated by birch and hornbeam hedges. Since 1992 the festival hosts the creations of contemporary garden designers. Those who make it to the festival have been selected from over a hundred entries from all over the world. Their creations are regarded as prototypes of the gardens of the future. They are playful as well as marvellous, and a source of inspiration for hobby and home gardeners.

We had already visited the Château itself in 2000, and accidentally found out about the Festival in 2003. Trying to avoid the steep climb to the main entrance, we found a parking area near the back gate. After a ten minute walk we reached the ticketing office. The entry fee was 8 euro. At the end of a path stood a hollow tree trunk with the sign ‘entrée’ (entrance) above it. The opening was very narrow and we were wondering where this was leading to. Inside the trunk was a staircase, winding down into the semi-darkness. It was all very mysterious and intriguing. We saw some light at the bottom of the stairs and carefully ventured down.

When we came out in the daylight, we found ourselves on one side of a hang bridge over a shallow gully that was overgrown with ferns. Walking over the bridge we noticed the white mist floating between the ferns. It was as if we walking on a bed of clouds. When we reached the other side the mist clouds dissipated. We marvelled over this little ‘wonder’ until we understood that mist was created artificially. To test our theory, we stepped back unto the bridge. The mist reappeared! Looking more closely, we noticed the mist guns that were cleverly hidden between the ferns. It was us crossing the bridge that had triggered them.



Slightly disappointed we continued our journey, walking up the path that was leading into the mystery forest. On our way we came across some very strange, yet artistic creations made of rusted wrought iron. Was this all there was to the famous Festival International des Jardins?

More to come …

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Wining and dining at Valençay castle

Cooking has always been a favourite hobby of mine. I therefore spend a lot of time going through cookbooks and surfing the internet looking for new and original recipes. When I’m holiday, I don’t cook, as we either stay in a hotel or a chambre d’hôtes. We have picnic lunches and restaurant dinners, or the other way round, depending on the weather.

My passion for cooking and food is always present, though. That’s probably why my favourite room when visiting the Loire castles, is the kitchen. Over the years, we’ve seen many. Each time I’m impressed by the size of them. They have gigantic open fireplaces, enormous woodstoves and countless copper pots, frying pans and pie dishes. In some place everyday life in the old days is depicted by little ‘household scenes’ with mannequins in period costumes, stuffed animals and plastic fruit and vegetables. Some look very real, others are somewhat ‘kitschy’.

One of the best castle kitchens is undoubtedly the one at Chenonceau. Unfortunately, when we visited the castle in 1999, the place was very crowded and we hardly got to see the kitchens.

Luckily there are other, less popular castles, where you can walk around without being pushed and shoved around by large groups of tourists. In 2008 we were quite alone when we visited the sumptuous Château de Valençay. Although the castle was originally built in the 16^th and 17^th century by the family of Estampes, it is best known as the home of Talleyrand. In 1803 this exceptional statesman received from Napoleon the order to buy a ‘beautiful ground’ to give princely receptions for the emperor’s guests. Talleyrand chose Valençay, a castle with a hundred sumptuously furnished rooms, a 150 ha park, and 19 000 ha of grounds and woods. To prepare the food for these receptions the castle had to be fitted out with adequate kitchen space and equipment.

We really enjoyed our visit, as there were lots of glass cases containing original menu cards of the dinners that the castle’s 19^th century owner hosted. It’s appalling to see how many courses they ate in those days. My guess is that they stayed at the table for the best part of the day and the evening, before retiring to bed to digest the heavy meal they had consumed. No wonder there are so many potbellied men in the pictures that are on display in the château’s long picture gallery!

Upstairs the large dining room table is set for dinner, with exquisite porcelain plates, crystal glasses and carafes, silver cutlery and white linen napkins. It all looks so smart and real that you’d expect Napoleon, Talleyrand and their high placed guests to come walking into the room right there and then. Unfortunately, the use of cameras is not allowed inside the castle, except for the kitchens and the servants’ quarters. So I cannot share this beautiful set up with you. I can only advice you to visit Valençay yourself when or if you travel to the Loire Valley.

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Are you ready for some magic?

2003 – Right across the courtyard of Blois castle stands the house of the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (December 7, 1805 - June13, 1871). Although he is widely considered as the father of modern style magic, he’s not to be confounded with the famous escape artist known as Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926, born Erich Weisz). In fact, the latter borrowed Houdin’s name, adding an ‘i’ to it to give it an artistic twist.

We decided to visit the house in 2003. In spite of our careful planning, the Maison de la Magie was ‘exceptionally’ closed for the day. So after visiting the Château, we found ourselves aimlessly standing around in the square between the castle and Houdin’s house. We were discussing where to go next, when the bell of a nearby church tower struck the first stroke of eleven o’clock. All of a sudden we heard a rambling noise behind the closed shutters of Houdin’s house. Four of the shutters opened automatically giving way to enormous clawing paws.

Apart from us there were a dozen of other people in the square. We all stood there staring at the strange spectacle. Over each paw an enormous growling head of a dragon appeared. One of the dragons seemed to have a ‘technical’ problem and only showed the tip of his snout, while the others wildly waved their heads up and down making fierce roaring noises.

The show lasted for about five minutes, after which the dragons one by one retreated into the house, with the shutters automatically closing as soon as they were inside. The noise ebbed away and in the silence that followed we heard a child sobbing. The dragons had clearly frightened it.

Afterwards we learned that these mechanical beasts made their appearance several times a day on the stroke of the hour.

Before leaving the square we took some pictures of the statue of the great Houdin himself (see magnifying glass). I think he looks a bit like the French singer/songwriter Claude François, who wrote ‘Comme d’Habitude’, the song that became an international hit as ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra. Don’t you agree?

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Vouvray by night

2008 - Can you think of a better place to spend a lovely summer evening, sipping some chilled Vouvray wine, with the little man in the moon watching over you?

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When mushrooms roll over

2005 - The old limestone quarries in la Touraine make excellent dwellings known as troglodyte houses. In summer the thick layers of rock prevent the heat from getting in, creating a natural air co effect. And in winter they keep the cold out.

Many of the larger quarries are nowadays being used to grow all kinds of mushrooms. I’ve already written about our visit to the ‘Cave aux Moines champignonnière’ near Saumur in one of my first posts in May.

The most common type is of course the ‘champignon de Paris’ or button mushroom. In the past you only found the white variety, but the brown or chestnut coloured version is rapidly gaining popularity because of its slightly nutty flavour. Then of course there are the ‘pleurottes’, the ‘pieds bleus’, and the Japanese ‘Shitake’. The last one is said to have cholesterol reducing qualities.

Very often the mushroom caves also have ‘galipettes’ on sale. In fact, these galipettes are simply white or chestnut button mushrooms that have become too big to be sold as such. Their funny name refers to the fact that, due to the importance of the hat’s diameter, the stem can no longer carry the weight and breaks, making the mushroom tumble over, or do a ‘galipette’ as this rolling motion is called in French.

'Galipettes aux 4 fromages' when they come out of the oven.

You'll also find ‘galipettes’ on the menu card of restaurants and caterers, and on the stalls of market vendors selling roasted chicken. In this case the ‘galipette’ is the head of an oversized mushroom stuffed with meat, herbs and other ingredients. You can use minced pork, chicken of beef, chopped onions and garlic, finely cut pieces of ham mixed with egg or cheese, rilettes, etc. The stuffed mushrooms are heated in an oven until the stuffing is cooked and the flesh of the mushroom becomes tender and soggy with the juices of the stuffing. You can eat them warm or cold as a starter or as a simple snack, with a slice of baguette and a glass of red wine.

We bought our first ‘galipettes’ from a roasted chicken vendor at the tiny Thursday market in Vernou-sur-Brenne near Vouvray. When we told the man that these would be our first ‘galipettes’ ever, he gave us two extra for free. They had a minced pork and herb stuffing and made a perfect side dish for our picnic lunch.

Preparing ‘galipettes’ is easy and quick. My most recent ‘creation’ is a stuffing of diced tomato, chopped spring onion and mozzarella cheese. Simply add some pepper and salt and a splash of olive oil. Put them on a tray on which you have sprinkled some extra olive oil and slide the tray in a warm oven (180°C) for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of your ‘galipette’. Bon appétit!

P.S. In France saying that you are planning to 'faire des galipettes' may cause some giggles, as the expression has another meaning that I don't want to go into here, as I don't want my blog to get an 'adults only' rating!

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What the doctor ordered!

2004 – On Thursday morning, 48 hours after our visit to the 'Château de la Roche aux Moines', my lower leg was swollen and the red circle was turning blue in the middle. During the night, it felt as if my leg was set in a tight clamp. By morning I could hardly walk.

Although we had some plans for the day, we decided to go and see a pharmacist first to get some Zyrtec (antihistamine) and a disinfectant. At the pharmacy in Amboise we asked for the medication, explaining what we needed it for. At the pharmacist’s request I ‘showed him some leg’. When he saw the size of the red bluish circle, he looked very worried. “That doesn’t look good”, he said. "You’d better go and see a doctor immediately". He showed us the way to a little polyclinic some 3 km further down the road.

Arriving in the waiting room, the receptionist looked which doctor was available. We only had to wait 15 minutes before one of the doors opened and a slender young woman showed us into her cabinet. I explained what had happened … about our walk, the little insect that had sat on my leg, the itching feeling, the pain I was experiencing, etc. She listened attentively and then asked a question that, even nowadays, still makes us laugh: “Did you manage to identify the culprit?” Afterwards my friend explained to me that he was about to answer “No, he was wearing a ski mask” just when I said “No, it was a tiny thing, but I think it was a spider.”

After the interview she made me lie down on the examining table and carefully inspected the red circle and the spot where the insect had bitten me. She felt my stomach and asked whether I had been feeling ill or feverish. No. In spite of my answer, she looked very worried and was very vague about what could have caused this extreme reaction.


In the end she gave me a prescription for two boxes of strong antibiotics (2 x 2 per day), some antihistamine, a pain killer, a bottle of medicinal alcohol as a disinfectant and an ointment to apply on the bite wound. She also gave me the strict instructions to go and see my doctor once I got home in case there wasn’t any improvement within two or three days.

Although the antibiotics gave me an upset stomach and tummy, after two or three days, the pain subsided and the diameter of the red circle started to diminish. Five days later, even before taking the last dose of antibiotics, my leg was back to normal. It turned out, however, that it wasn’t just a bad reaction to a simple spider bit. It was much more serious than that. I had been bitten by a tick and the little bloodsucker had pumped the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria into my blood, thus causing the first stage of Lyme disease. This explains why the lady doctor looked so worried and prescribed such powerful antibiotics.

This experience has made me very careful when it comes to walking in high grass. I try to wear full length trousers and socks all the time. And after a long walk I always check my lower legs for little black spots … showing the presence of a tick. Until now, I have been spared, but you just can’t be careful enough.

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The itsy bitsy spider

2004 – Tuesday, with the visit of the Château de la Roche aux Moines in Epiré – had been a long day. We had left Tours early in the morning to go to the market in Bourgueil and to cover the well over 140 km distance between Tours and our main destination of the day. We therefore wanted to take it easy on Wednesday and stayed in the neighbourhood of Tours.
After a visit to the Halles de Tours – an impressive indoor market – we decided to visit the nearby Prieuré Saint Cosme where the French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524 – 1585) had lived. Apart from the permanent exhibition on the life and work of the poet, the ruined priory is known for its exceptional rose garden.

Although there are many signposts showing the way to the priory, we managed to get lost in the intricate net of motorways and bridges around Tours. When we finally found it, there were very few cars in the parking lot and we were almost the only visitors.
I had heard of Pierre de Ronsard before, but I knew very little about his life and work. Apparently some of his best work dates from the time when he met and fell in love with Hélène de Surgères, one of the ladies of the court. He was 54 when he made her acquaintance. Her husband, Captain Jacques de la Rivière, had just been killed in the civil war. Queen Catherine de Médicis, who felt sorry for her lady in waiting, asked Pierre de Ronsard to comfort her by writing some poems. He accepted and fell in love with Hélène in the course of executing his task. One of poems he wrote for ‘la Belle Hélène’ is entitled ‘Madrigal’.

Back to the gardens! The ruins and the rose garden are definitely the most impressive part of the Prieuré. There is, however, also an intriguing medieval medicinal garden with lots of herbs, some popular, some rare. Whilst walking through this garden, I began to feel a horrible pain in my lower right leg … where I had been stung or bitten by the spider the day before. A large red hot circle was forming around the little dot I had noticed before.
Each time I put my full weight on my right leg, the pain became almost unbearable. There were some gardeners tending to the herb garden and my friend asked them if they had some ointment or disinfectant to soothe the pain. They immediately made me sit down in the little ticketing office, while they went looking for an emergency kit in their truck. They came back with a spray, some ointment, band aids and bandages and fussed over me for about 15 minutes cooling down the hot spot on my leg with cold water and applying the spray and the ointment. I refused the bandage as it made my leg feel even hotter.
After this exclusive treatment, the pain somewhat ebbed away and we were able to continue our excursion. By the evening the pain had come back and the red spot had spread to a diameter of about 10 cm. This definitely wasn’t the bite of an itsy bitsy spider!

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Crickets, squirrels and spiders

2004 - During our visit of le ‘Château de la Roche aux Moines’ in Epiré we spent some time walking around the grounds. We came across the ruins of a building that, judging by the elongated and at the end rounded shape of the remaining masonry, had been a church or a chapel, hence probably the name of the property (Castle of the Monks’ rock). In the oblong top part lay some old tombstones. They were weathered and the inscriptions had almost completely disappeared.

Two rows of cypress had been planted inside the walls of the ruins and the ground was covered with long grass. There was a little sign stating the obvious. This was the: ‘Allée des cyprès’.

It was nice walking in the shade of the trees. We sat down on a little stone wall for a while listening to the chirping crickets and watching two red squirrels chase each other in the undergrowth before agilely disappearing in one of the tall cypress. I was wearing 7/8^th length jeans and white canvas shoes without socks. Suddenly there was an itching feeling at the back of my right leg halfway between my foot and knee. I looked down but saw nothing. So I assumed that it must have been the high grass brushing against my leg.

After this little intermezzo we went up to the main house and enjoyed our wine tasting session. Afterwards it was almost time for lunch. We drove on in the direction of the town of Savennières, where we crossed the Loire, to the village of Rochefort-sur-Loire – some 4 km further south. Here we found a perfect picnic spot on the banks of the Louet. In the morning we had bought some fresh goat cheese with herbs and a few slices of ‘jambon blanc’ at the weekly market in Bourgueil. This made a perfect lunch!

On our way back to Tours we stopped at La Chapel-sur-Loire for a drink in a little bar near the Loire River. Sitting on the terrace my right leg started to itch again. I ran my hand over the itching spot and felt a small insect sitting there. As soon as I touched it, it fell to the ground. I looked at my leg and saw a little red dot where the creature had bitten or stung me. I put some saliva on it, as I have been told to do when I was a little girl. When my friend asked me what was wrong, I told him that I had been bitten by a tiny spider. “Does it hurt?’ he enquired. “No, it just itches a bit”, I replied. “That’s OK then”, he said and we both forgot about the whole incident … until the next day!

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