Châteaux, Caves, and Rainbows

For breakfast, we walked to a boulangerie across from the abbey (using our special gate code). We bought two croissants and a baguette, intended for lunch. Found a place in the abbey gardens to enjoy our breakfast, accompanied by a delicious jam Sylvie gave us.

Sufficiently full, we hopped in the car and drove to the town of Samur. Our first stop was Cave de Ackerman, founded in 1811. The draw to visit was that the cellars are in 7 kilometers of caves. We took the audioguided tour and learned that the caves here (along with many other wineries in the region) were originally limestone quarries. The stones, in turn, were used to build the famous Loire Valley châteaux as well as town buildings.








This winery specializes in sparkling wines, so it was interesting to learn a different process. When we finished the tour, we tasted four different sparkling wines, varying in grape varieties, dryness and even trying a red sparkling wine.

For lunch, we took our picnic to Château de Samur, which is perched on a hill, overlooking the Loire River. Beautiful scenery and we even saw another rainbow.


After, we stopped at two other wineries, but their tours had finished for the season. We enjoyed driving through small towns on tiny country roads (even dirt sometimes). While searching for one of the wineries, Nancy, the gps, demanded we turn right on the below "road"...


If you can't see, it's just a grassy area meant only for a tractor.

We wanted to see a few other châteaux, so we stopped at Château de Brézé. This has the deepest dry moat in all of Europe.








Next up was Château de Montsoreau. We couldn't see much because the front gates were closed for the season.

Saving Kate's favorite for last, we checked out Château d'Ussé. This is where the author of "Sleeping Beauty" got his inspiration and where he wrote the tale.


We headed to the abbey and debated the whole way as to whether or not this one was better than the Carcassonne castle where "Puss in Boots" was inspired. You can guess who was on each side. No definitive conclusion though.

Today, we also saw about three more rainbows... About seven in two days. That's more than we have seen in the last five years.

Back at Fontevraud, we cleaned the car in anticipation of her return tomorrow in Paris. Later in the room, we did some planning for the last six days of our trip, all to be spent in Paris.

- Martin & Kate

BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Rue Saint-Lazare,Fontevraud-l'Abbaye,France