Day: October 24, 2012

Wednesday

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Up early bright and early to meet Laure who turned out to be a girl/woman. For E45 she was taking us on a wine tour. We called into Joseph Mellot for a quick visit to ask about his wines in Australia then moved on to Bue and the wines of which we learned such a lot with Laure and with the owner – a lovely young man. They have the only egg shaped vats in the area. The other vats are concrete and some double sized steel vats. We had a great explanation of what goes on from the planting growing etc. It’s an amazing industry here and is quite tightly controlled to preserve its quality.

We moved to another place driving though the most gorgeous countryside – picture the rolling gentle hills covered in neatly planted vines some yellow (Savignon) and some green (mostly Pinot) 

The sky is blue there are little statues with crosses of the intersections of the roads. 


Wine growers have vines in different parts of the valley. Some in flint, others in limestone, or clay which all impact on the type of wine. We met another handsome young wine maker and even got to taste the wine at various stages of its fermentation . The wines here were very good and we seriously want to source them in Australia. 

As Laure had been so lovely we invited her join  us for lunch and she suggestion the bistro at Chavignol where we had been on Monday. We continued our chat over a lovely lunch before returning to Sancerre and a little afternoon rest. 
Quiet night tonight I think!!!!!

Exploring around Sancerre

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Lounging at the Loire


Sunday in a small French village is almost a non-event. There is church and everything else is closed. Today we were lucky. There were some antique markets which we wandered around spying some good furniture and little else. They were more flea markets than antiques. 


We then drove down the hill and had a beautiful omelette for lunch before going to the local festa / fete  which was chocolate!

It was held in the new cultural centre in Saint Saturnin.  The locals were all there and after passing through the entry hall decorated with fake autumn trees we got to the hall. Different chocolate makers were there showing their wares . 
We tasted our way around the room.  Lots of samples. And a few purchases later we left for a little drive .
We ended up at another lovely little village Chavignol – home of the goats cheese.  We visited the cheese makers and saw all the different types cheese called crottin de chavignol AOC The new cheese and the older cheese with mould growing on it! We bought a few for later! 
We stopped in at a rather lovely gallery and had a good chat to the owner who gave us lots of information about the area – including a pottery area nearby.
Monday we went for a drive to Cosne-Cours and did some supermarket shopping. Such a beautiful drive. Country roads lined with autumn coloured trees. Vines growing in neat little rows in small “patches”. Some green and some yellow.
We continued on to La Borne – a centre for pottery. It was beautiful though the pottery was not all modern. It reminded me of the 70 ‘s style pottery wine glasses and heavy pottery plates. The main centre had an exhibition and one of the exhibitors – a Japanese man whose work was modern and rather impressive. Will try and include a photo .

When we returned we had a visit to the Maison de Sancerre. For those readers who don’t know this area, Sancerre is famous for its wines in particular their white- the Savignon Blanc and the Pinot. They had a wonderful display with animated films and lots of information. We wanted to be a little informed because on Wednesday we are going on a wine tour. We finished  with a little wine tasting at Joseph Mellot one of the biggest growers and wine maker in the area and went to his restaurant for dinner. Very good Food and wine.

Tuesday was foggy so we had a slow start and headed off to Bourges. It was a small city with lots to offer. We wandered the medieval streets, visited the rather magnificent cathedral and went on a tour to Jacques Cours house. He was a wealthy man in the 1500’s who built a rather magnificent house, on the fruits of his trading business . 
Got home at 7.30 and surprise – we cooked our own dinner!