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Jardins d'amour
Villandry. It was still pretty misty out.Geo: 47.1661, 0.238081
Breakfast this morning was several different kinds of bread, including brioche and croissants, fruit salad, and goat cheese. Laurent, one of the hotel's owners, recommended that we pour honey on the goat cheese, top it with walnuts that we cracked ourselves in some really heavy duty crackers, and then spread it on some of the bread. I didn't do the honey part, but spreading it on bread was a great idea. Laurent makes his own jam, and there were probably 20 different varieties on the tables: raspberry, strawberry, peach and quince, marmalade, rhubarb, yellow plum, pear, and green tomato and candied lemon (the label read "Please Love Me."😉, among others. I tried a dollop of Please Love Me, and it was't too bad. It was odd at first because all you could taste were tomatoes, but suddenly the lemon kicked in and it was quite nice.
I once again could not get my door open after breakfast. Stan happened to walk by, so he got it open. He also showed me the trick to it, so now I think I'll be able to manage it!
We went to the chateau at Villandry this morning. The point of visiting Villandry is not
the chateau but the gardens. In fact, most of us didn't really look at the interior of the castle at all. We did walk through just to get to the tower, which has a terrific view over the gardens. There are four jardins d'amour that you must see from up above in order to appreciate. There are also six or eight other flower gardens and vegetable gardens. I only learned the word "jardin" in school, but Virginie taught us that the word for vegetable garden is "potager," from which we get the word "potage." So, there were jardins, potagers, a water garden, a sun garden, and a maze. I walked through the maze, but it was very small and impossible to get lost in. Disappointing, really. The potagers had rose bushes at the corner of each bed to represent the monks who used to tend the gardens. They could plant whatever they wanted, so they decided to put themselves into the potagers as rose bushes. The low waterfall that runs through the gardens and eventually out of the castle grounds has carp that rush to the surface when they see you; they think they're going to be fed. They're just
a touch on the creepy side, what with their gaping mouths.
After Villandry, we drove to Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau. It wasn't on the itinerary so was a nice surprise. It's built in a lake fed by a river and it's fairly small for a chateau. We agreed it would be manageable. It is a Renaissance castle that fell into disrepair and was eventually resurrected by a Spaniard in the early 20th century. It's no longer inhabited, but it's been decorated to look as if it is. Well, some rooms, anyway. If you can describe a castle as cozy, this would be it.
We had time to spend in the town of Azay-le-Rideau so that we could get some lunch. I got a ham and Emmenthal sandwich on a baguette from a boulangerie. I've said it before: ham and cheese sandwiches are so much better in Europe than they are in America! I needed something sweet afterward, so I found a gelateria and got a scoop of gianduia and a scoop of cassis and sat in the sun eating. J'étais très heureuse!
I walked around the town a bit and made momentary friends with a little cat who looked just like Boubi, only much
friendlier.
On the way back to Chinon we stopped just for a photo op of Ussé castle. I was excited to see it because I have a computer game that is partly set in Ussé castle; in real life it actually looks just like the game! Ussé castle is also called le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant (i.e., Sleeping Beauty Castle) and apparently inspired the fairy tale written by Charles Perrault.
When we got back to Chinon, I walked into town to buy a couple of jam spoons that I had really wanted to get in 2009, but at that time the shop was closed each time I went by. I looked for these particular jam spoons throughout the rest of that tour but never found them. This time the shop was open, so I was able to get what I wanted. Yay!
At 6:00 p.m. we had a wine tasting with Laurent. He was very funny and taught us all sorts of stuff about wine, which I will forget instantly, just like I've forgotten everything I learned at every other wine tasting I've been to. Boubi joined us for a little while but quickly got bored when he realized there
was no food on offer. One thing we learned was that not only does French wine have an "appellation controlée," so do pâtés and cheeses. And the five things that must always be on a French wine bottle are: the appellation controlée (e.g., A.C. Chinon), the winemaker, the alcohol content, the volume, and the vintage. Everything else on the label is "just peanuts" according to Laurent. He gave us a written test at the end, and then corrected and returned them in hilarious fashion. However, he was extremely pleased with me because I got 100%, and he said it's been quite a long time since someone has done that. My prize was a jar of his jam: peach and cassis. It's a fairly large jar, and I'm not sure how I'm going to tote it around for the rest of the trip, never mind actually packing it and bringing it home! Anyway, the whole thing was great fun.
I went with the Magnificent Seven afterwards for a picnic dinner by the river. One couple had bought grapes, a container of olives and peppers, apples, brie, crackers, Boursin, two baguettes, and wine. It was pretty good stuff and a nice setting. It
Usse Castle
The sun was so bright, I couldn't even see my camera screen. got dark pretty quickly but it was a warm evening.
Tomorrow's going to be a long bus day. Oy.
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Mom
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Thanks for the birthday wishes! It was a wonderful day that ended with Greek dinner. We haven't been to a Greek restaurant in ages so it was a nice treat. This one was in Mill Creek and I had lamb, which I love.