Loire River Valley Chateaus and Wine Caves – Monday & Tuesday July 16 & 17, 2018

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It’s 7:30 am and we’re pulling out of the driveway, we each had a coffee and jelly toast. Kirsten is happy we’re on the road again. I think that’s a county song, On the Road Again, just can’t wait to get on the road again......

We drive to Saumur and stop at the you know where... the Office of Tourism. Kirsten and Omi get all kinds of info. Our next stop is Chateau de Villandry. It’s known for its gardens and it should be. It is very well manicured, and the chateau was beautiful.

Next, we visited the Chateau de Chinon, this is the place Joan of Arc found the young king in hiding and convinced him to give her an army. I can only imagine the king saying to his court .... give her whatever she wants, I want to go back to the party. You pretty much know the rest of the story. Didn’t end well for Joan.

Back into the car Kirsten has started to reserve us a room on Booking.com. What the..... I thought we found our rooms by the seat of pants. No longer honey, you need to come into the digital age.

Digital Age.... Yeah, I got your digital age, rolling my eyes as I pick up her phone and complete the booking. Kirsten laughs as she shifts through all six gears as we speed down the road back to Saumur.

We arrive at the hotel. Nice room, we put our suit cases into the room and off to Chateau de Saumur we go with picnic in hand. Tonight, is movie night at the Chateau and we’re going. With a picnic of cheeses, meats, bread, olives and yes wine.

We had our picnic and played cards while waiting for the movie to start. I won.

The movie is Interstellar with Michael McCaughey, Anne Hathaway. The staff pulled up a screen on the side wall of the Chateau and voila.....Movie Night. It’s in French of course, Omi didn’t last an hour. LOL, that’s ok I’ve seen it before and its 11 pm we’ve had a long day and we’re ready for bed.

Tuesday,

We all sleep well. We’re up, showered, our stuff is loaded into the car. Instead of the hotel breakfast we venture out into the town looking for a café breakfast. We find one and it’s scenic, you know how Kirsten is. After our breakfast, we visit the cathedral I say my prayers, light my candle and take my pictures.

From here we visit the Abbey Royale de Fontevraud, this the largest abbey in France. Lots of history from it being started as an Abbey all the way through WWII, yeah people got executed there. It has a cool crypt, I mean cool like 50 degrees cool. We bought our lunch at the café in the abbey gardens and ate in there.

Next, we’re off to see the wine caves of the Ackerman winery. This vineyard makes the oldest sparkling wine in France. It was started by some guy named Ackerman in 1811. I’m only repeating what I was told during the tour.

Ok, back to the wine cave, we milled around the reception area for 15 to 20 minutes. Trying to figure out how do you sign up for a tour of the caves. Well leave it to Kirsten, she finds an English-speaking tour getting ready to enter the cave and tells us to blend in. Yep, we blended in with another 50-gemologist taking a guided tour of the cave. Now image Kirsten, Omi and I following a bunch of nerds interested in rocks. Think of Bert on Big Bang Theory. Yea, we blended in. The tour guide kept watching me, I know she was on to me. We walked through the caves, it’s just like Mammoth Cave Ky except it’s full of wine.

Once we finished touring the cave we took the backroads through the country home enjoying all the sunflower fields, vineyards.

We stop at the grocery store for dinner, Kirsten and Omi wanted a steak diner, me ...I’ll have some bratwursts and a beer. As were putting the groceries into the car Kirsten checks the label on her steak. Omi informs her it’s DUCK! Kirsten looks at me and in my straightest Daffy Duck impression without laughing, I say “Of course, it looks like a steak, buster”.

Kirsten goes back into the store, Omi follows her, she wants a steak damn it. I’m still doing my Daffy Duck impressions all the way home, telling Kirsten which turn to take on each roundabout. Kirsten was way over my impressions by the time we pulled into the house.

Kirsten fixes Omi and her steak and my bratwurst with onions, zucchini and baked potatoes.

Mine was good. Ok, another travel tip whenever in a different country eat pork. Don’t ask what part of the pig it’s from, just go for the pork. It’s the safest, trust me on this one.

Dinner was great.

Dat’s all Folks.....

Good night

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