Mon voyage vers la belle France: Chateaux de la Loire Part Two: Sunday

Bon Apres-Midi,
Happy Monday from Rennes, it is now afternoon here and I have finished classes and am fairly tired, still recovering from our trip. Part two of my weekend journey was just as eventful. Sunday morning we had to wake up at 8am. I was not super happy about waking up seeing as how we had been awake from almost 24 hours the day before. To add to my morning grouchiness, while we had been told to bring sheets and a blanket we were not informed that towels would not be provided. Therefore in order to shower in the morning I had to air dry in the bathroom. Always a great way to start the day is slightly damp and still a little soapy as our shower had about as much water pressure as a light New England mist. Breakfast was in the unheated cafeteria and included bread, jam, instant coffee, warm milk and orange juice. We were some of the first people at breakfast, following only the Germans. It was amazing how well our group followed stereotypes, the Germans being the only early group always ready to go before everyone else. The Americans, Swiss and English were normally second to arrive and the French and Italians being up the end followed only by the Spanish and Spanish speaking contingent, it was hilarious. In addition to following the timeliness stereotypes about every other stereotype was fulfilled it was hilarious. After breakfast we grabbed our bags and trooped to the bus again, of course we were on the bus by 9:45am as instructed but again did not take off until 10:30ish. We drove for an hour and so to a wine cave which is a consortium of vineyards owners who all deliver their grapes to the Cave where it is distilled and bottled. One the way there it was quite interesting and we had trouble getting the bus into the driveway and we ended up having to do a three point turn in a round about (very very interesting and quite scary) Cave Montlouis was beautiful and has been a consortium of growers since 1961. We were able to get a guided tour of the wine making process and the stocks in the caves which was very interesting. Their process dates back to their origins and they have wines that are made from growing the grapes until bottling in the original manner from hundreds of years ago. The group specializes in white wines and also have effervescent wines, akin to Champagne but they are not able to call it that due to name laws. The cave is part of the Loire Valley officially which means they get special naming rights for their wines and are regulated quite stringently and are therefore rewarded with the very exclusive title as a Loire Valley wine.

Entrance to Cave Montlouis

My room at the hostel

Wine Rotating Machines

Wine distilling at work

Old fashioned barrels

Resting Bottles

Our Tourguide explaining the Dechet Process


A finished bottle of Methode Traditionelle Vin Petaillant

Once done with our tour we went back to the main room for a wine tasting, we were able to taste one of the methode traditionelle of the Champagne region, sec which means dry, my personal favorite and a semi sec, semi dry from 2009 which was also very good. It had sort of a peach flavor to it. I also tried a dry from 2008 which was good as well. The majority of our bus bought some wine and then it was back to the bus to grab lunch for our picnic. We found a field not far from the Cave and had our picnic of sandwiches, chips and apples. After our picnic we drove an hour to the village of Azay le Rideau. Located in the village is the Chateau Azay le Rideau, which I did a project on in high school. The village is very cute and I had my first ice cream cone of the visit. The chateau is normally not free for Americans but another one of the exchange students pretended to be French so the woman at the door thought we all were and we got in for free. The Chateau was very beautiful and while the smallest of the ones we visited still very cool inside. The chateau sits on a pond and we were able to see some wildlife including ducks and a giant fish.