Thursday was my last day in Argenton, so even though the day
dawned drizzly and cool, we decided to head out and see something more of the
area. We had found a map that had a
driving route for seeing some of the local wineries. We were in an area (kind of a county) called
Anjou, where a lot of wine was produced.
So we headed out looking for the first one on our tour. By the time we reached it, the weather had
cleared and the sun was shining. It was
still a bit cool, so we were glad to have brought our light jackets. The tour took us on many back roads, and much
of the time we thought we were lost. But
we continued to follow signs and eventually found the place we were looking
for. In many places there would be a
sign that said “Toutes Directions” and it took us a while – and the help of our
little translation book to discover it meant “all routes.” So if we headed that direction, there would
be a round-about with arrows pointing to all the nearby towns. It made things easier once we figured it
out! Sometimes, though, we saw that
sign, turned, and were in these tiny back alley type streets, twisting and
turning, three story walls on either side of us, and wondering if we were on
the right road. Then suddenly we would
pop out and there would be the round-about!
The first winery we drove to was Le Puy Notre Dame, where we
discovered that it is too early in the year for it to be open to the
public! But we saw some beautiful
country, and acres and acres of vineyards.
We wandered through a church there, and I took some beautiful stained
glass pictures. From there we drove to
Montreuil-Bellay where there was a castle called Chateau de Montreiul-Bellay
but it was closed, again, too early for the season. But we got some beautiful pictures. It is built on the River Thouet, and with the
day now being so clear, many of the pictures we took showed the castle reflected
in the water. It was beautiful.
From there we went on to Le Coudray Macouard where there was
supposed to be an artist colony as well as a vineyard to explore. But, alas, nothing was open. We wandered around a while looking for
somewhere to have lunch with no luck, so we headed for Saumur, which is a
larger city. We figured we’d surely find
a lunch spot there. We did; Amy and I
both ordered salads, but Amber wanted to try something authentic French, so
just picked something on the menu. From
the reaction of the waiters, it was clear that it was not something Americans
usually ordered. But she ate it
anyway. It was a crepe filled with a
potato, cheese, meat mixture, and while she said it was a little bland and had
a funny aftertaste, it wasn’t terrible.
(Later that evening when we returned home she discovered it was pig intestines!)
Chateau de Saumur was in Saumur, so we explored that, and
enjoyed watching the goats – some of them tiny babies – wandering the hillsides
around the castle. It was amazing to
think about the people who had built that place so many thousands of years
ago. There was evidence of where the
moat had been, and many walls remained standing after all this time. Kind of makes me feel like we live in a baby
country! There was no America when these
places were built! And wouldn’t be for
thousands more years!
By this time, the sun was getting low in the sky, so we
headed home. Tomorrow will be my
traveling day.
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