meats, flowers, and all manner of spices and pastries. We hit the patisserie first and finally had a chance to try some French macaroons - delicious!
Connected is an outdoor fruit and vegetable market. This colorful market was filled with the freshest, best smelling produce! The girls were buying beautiful fraises (strawberries), grapes and peaches.
We all agreed that the strawberries were like none we'd ever tasted - fresh, sweet and almost flowery. The girls surprised me by buying me a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut sunflowers! I wish I could take them home with me!
The geography of the Loire Valley includes a lot of limestone formations - especially cliffs. Since Renaissance times, this limestone has been mined and used extensively in buildings, castles, and chateaus in the area. The mining of the limestone left deep caves in the cliffs. Over the years those caves have been utilized for wine storage, and even restaurants and homes! We went to one of the wine storage caves at a locally owned winery in Amboise.
The family controls all aspects of the process from growing the vines, to pressing the grapes, storage and fermentation, bottling and selling.
The do not export and mainly sell locally. The family took us into their cave to tell us about their process and their wines - very informative. It has not escaped our notice that the French take their wine very seriously - it's more than just a drink with food. Wine is a cultural institution here! In the Loire Valley, wine is also a very important part of the economy and the region produces many different types of wines.
Next we had a couple of free hours in the quaint Renaissance town of Amboise next to the Loire River. As soon as we saw the river, we knew we needed to have a picnic on the banks - it was a gorgeous day, and we were looking forward to slowing down the pace for awhile. Busy sidewalk cafes are fun, but Alaska girls need a break from the crowds now and then! We went into a market and selected a few items for lunch - the girls tended to combine a few familiar things - Cokes or Pringles with some new items like cheeses, different deserts and baguettes. We had a fantastic picnic by the river, made even more spectacular by the backdrop of the grand Chateau of Amboise.
After we finished, we walked through the narrow streets looking for our new favorite treat - sorbet! We LOVE French sorbet and all of the wonderful flavors!
After getting our sorbet fix, we met the rest of our group and walked up to the Amboise Chateau for a tour.
The Chateau is small but beautiful - and the grounds and the view are gorgeous. The chateau grounds include a small chapel which contains the tomb of Leonardo Da Vinci - the French loved him and he was invited here often.
We then were ready to visit the largest chateau in the area - Chenonceau! Chenonceau is a very spectacular castle, which housed French kings - the grounds, river and forest surrounding it are beautiful. We had a great tour which was very informative, but were a little frazzled by the crowds - Chenonceau has become quite a popular tourist attraction, and the place was packed! We were quite impressed, but a little overwhelmed by so many people bustling to see the chateau on such a warm day!
We ended our day with a very unique dinner experience. Remember the limestone caves I talked about earlier? We went to a restaurant that is in one of those caves for dinner!
It was dark and intimate, and wonderfully cool after a hot two hours packed into Chenonceau! Eating dinner in a cave is definitely a different kind of dining experience but we really enjoyed it.
Tomorrow is a long travel day - we are heading to the south of France - to Lyon!
No comments:
Post a Comment