First Quarterly week-end in the Loire Valley

Seb was organizing this first week-end since our move to Toulouse. The choice of the place happened when we went to see the excellent Feydeau play : "Les fiancés de Loches", easy enough to translate... Loches is a city in the center of France. Not knowing Loches, we'll have a look at it ! Then, he looked for a place to stay. A ferme-auberge, I don't know if this exists outside France... Basically, farm-inn : dinner bed and breakfast at the farm. I LOVED that week-end ! The four of us just get along too well !! And it was also cultural !

Saturday afternoon, we visited the Chenonceau Castle, a beautiful castle from the Loire Valley, built over the river Cher.

The castle was built from 1513 by Catherine Briconnet and Thomas Boyer over a medieval castel owned by the Marques family. From the initial castel, they only kept the dungeon and a well.
The castle was also owned by King Francois the First, Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medicis, Louise de Lorraine and Madam Dupin.

Diane de Poitiers built the bridge over the Cher which makes this castel so particular and ordered some beautiful gardens along the river. She was the lover of King Henri II, whose wife was Catherine de Medicis. After the death of King Henri II, Catherine took back the castle from Diane. She had her own gardens built and a large gallery over the bridge where she could give giant parties.

Louise de Lorraine was King Henri III's wife. She stayed in the castle after his death, having the place covered in black and herself in white like the royal mourning colors ought to be.

Finally, Madam Dupin, was keen on the intellectuals of her time : Diderot, Rousseau ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau stayed there for a while, raising her kids. He was really fond of her !! Like the inhabitants of the village who saved her and the castel in the french revolution.

The castle is fully furnished and you can also admire some paintings from masters like Rubens inside the castle.

After Chenonceau, we paid a visit to Loches. The city is less famous for Feydeau's Fiancés than for two influent women. Loches is the city where Joan of Arc met King Charles VII and convinced him to go to Reims. Loches also hosts Agnes Sorel's grave, Charles VII's lover, famous for her beauty. It's medieval castel from this time has a dungeon, 37 meter-high, the highest from this time in France. The dungeon had been a prison, until late, in the early 20th century.

In the evening, we had a wonderful dinner cooked by Mrs Pasquier, our host for the week-end. Tomatoes and eggs from their hens, goose (their) with zuchini's gratin and potatoes. All vegetables from their kitchen garden. Cheeses from their cow's milk, and plum pie from their plumtree ! MMMMmmmmm !!

On sunday, we started with a huge breakfast with jams, butter, and milk from the farm, bred and croissant. :-)

After breakfast, we employed ourselves to make our own butter from fresh sour cream, and we made it !!! Then, Mrs Pasquier took us for a visit of the farm and first to the milkroom where we managed to manually milk a cow. We had a wonderful chat with Mrs and Mr Pasquier on agriculture and breeding and the way they drive their farm. It was really interesting !

I really recommend you pay a visit to them. They are really moving, friendly, nice and passionate people ! Stop by Chatillon sur Indre in the Bigorn Farm !

We finished the week-end by having lunch in Saint Hyppolite at the rib steack festival and a little visit of Chatillon sur Indre before driving back to the Chateauroux's railway station.

It was a WONDERFUL week-end. I almost forgot to tell, that we of course played Yam each time we could !!