Loire Valley

The Loire Valley…former playground of France’s nobility, now it attracts lovers of chateaus and, well, lovers of chateaus, the world over. But is that all there is to the Loire? Of course not, or else we wouldn’t have come here. I mean, Soph likes her chateaus, and she definitely wears the pants in the relationship, but to be able to drag me on a vacation where the only thing to do is look at glorified manor houses? Even I have some standards…

And standard number one is…goat cheese! Yes, the Loire is possibly the world’s finest purveyor of goat cheese. It’s so good that they even mold it into shapes before selling it to you! St. Maure is a cylinder; Valencay is a pyramid; etc. Not sure that it adds much to the taste, but it does make it just a little bit more fun to eat. Anyway - we were discussing over one of our fromage plates how it turned out that I, who never really ate cheese up until a few years ago, ended up being the one of us who now loves cheese (this was realized when I took seven cheeses from the dessert tray, and then stole one of Soph’s because I knew she wouldn’t like it). I mean - I hated macaroni and cheese growing up so much so that I don’t remember having actually eaten it. Maybe therein lies the reason? Not having my cheese taste-buds stunted by the green glop that is Kraft, I’m now able to enjoy the stinkiest of stinky cheeses? Probably not - but it’s been a fun progression to start with tame cheeses such as Gruyere, and on the second night in the Loire Valley to graduate to Roquefort, the king of moldy cheeses. I couldn’t have even smelled that stuff a year ago, but now - bring it on!

Regarding the rest of the food of the Loire…I know I’ve said this before, but the French really know what they’re doing when they cook. Once again, we had some crazy-good eating experiences, including the single best French Onion Soup the world has ever witnessed. The food is really at it’s best when mixing flavors, such as a venison with a raspberry and black pepper sauce, or a spiced chocolate mousse with cream, vanilla and burnt sugar. Best of all - we didn’t eat Asian food for five straight days! I think that’s a new record (although I’m writing this the day after returning, and Soph has already cooked us a full Korean dinner…)

That brings us to standard number two…wine! Ok, we’ve done a lot of wine stuff already, but the Loire is one of those underrated regions that produces some very nice wines, relatively cheaply, but doesn’t get much press. As such - we were able to visit some of the top producers here, tour their caves, and get really great wines for almost nothing. Of course, we had to fit them into our suitcases, which kind of sucked, but that’s all part of the adventure. The thing I really like about the Loire wines, however, is the sheer number of producers who have gone biodynamic with their processes. I don’t want to sound like a hippie or anything, but it’s kind of neat seeing a lot of younger vignerons having success with these types of methods. It generally takes them a few years to see the results, but many of the growers have found the quality of their wines has gotten better, and a handful of the top domaines here are now fully biodynamic. One of the first producers to do this, Domaine Huet, now even has tulips growing on their vines - the only place in the world where this happens. We ended up driving by their plots, and it was interesting to see theirs versus other growers in the same area who aren’t biodynamic, as the contrast is staggering.

Standard number three is, obviously - tuffeau caves! Tuffeau is a type of rock unique to the Loire; it’s fairly soft, and back in the day was extensively mined as a building material (for many of the chateaus, actually). Today, you have tons of caves from where it was excavated – caves which hold cool things like mushrooms and wines! We did a couple of tastings in tuffeau caves, which was neat because the temperature was perfect for wine storage. It was also perfect for fungus growing – some of the older bottles of wine were completely covered in mold! And while I generally don’t have much of an opinion on caves in general, these were fun, as you walked in on the ground level and the temperature was instantly colder, as it stays constant throughout the summers and winters.

All this fun stuff aside, the real draw of the Loire Valley is, of course, the chateaus…because really, who doesn’t like a nice chateau every now and then? And the Loire is filled with some of the best. Gothic spires, crazy gardens…one of them even had a working drawbridge! Of all the castles and whatnot we’ve seen, I think this was the first actual drawbridge; unfortunately there was no ogre in the moat, although there was a dude with a large nose who demanded a 10 Euro entrance fee, which at the end of the day is kind of the same thing.



While I don’t necessarily get into the whole “this chateau was given to this king’s mistress, and then the queen banished her to this other chateau” thing, Soph enjoys a lot of the political drama that comes with them. For me, I find them interesting because they’re basically castles that were built for comfort and beauty, rather than as defensive structures, which I think marks a major shift in how the role of government was being executed. Architecturally, most of the chateaus have some feature that is both unique and interesting, whether it be their location, the grounds / gardens, or even the floor plan. One of them, Cheverny, is still even being lived in by the owners! That said, the most impressive of them was, without a doubt, Chambord. Chambord was merely the king’s hunting lodge, and he ended up spending something like 60 entire days there in his lifetime. Interestingly enough, Leonardo da Vinci came and helped design it as he was getting older, and spent a few of his final years living here. As such, you have some features that are clearly ahead of their time. First, the inside is planned on a strict geometric basis, with all sorts of rooms upon rooms that allow not only for large gatherings, but also a lot of privacy. Then there is the double-helix staircase, which is designed in such a way that people going up will never pass people going down (it’s also set up so that a single lantern at the top of the staircase can light the entire chateau, or at least the main halls – which would have been very useful in the pre-electricity days). Finally, of course, is the view of the keep from outside. Chambord is so monstrously large and imposing, and so ornate, that you can’t help but gawk at it. It’s very impressive, and as such, I’ll just post some pictures, rather than try to describe it.


Lastly, I have to say this one more time…we once again had good experiences with the French. We even took a wine tour in French, although it was more like a half of a wine tour, because midway through some other English-speaking people showed up, and the guide thought it would be easier to just give the tour and switch between languages, at which point her French became completely unintelligible to the non-native speaker. Still - good times!

Next week: Chamonix!