Another sunny day in the Loire Valley!

Today was another idyllic day in the Loire
Valley.  After a sumptuous omelette a la Mark, we set off for a troglodyte village not far from us, Rochmenier.

When the stone for the chateaux were quarried, the locals often built caves into them. Underground caverns were dug from the tuffeau stone with only chimneys showing above ground. Rochemenier is a village where many of the dwellings are underground.  This area of Anjou has the largest concentration of troglodyte buildings in  France.

From there, we drove into Saumur where we had a lunch at an outdoor cafe near the beautiful chateau along the Loire.  The sun was warm and it was incredibly pleasant.

After that, we went for a tour of the winery of Lous de Grenelle.  The tour was in French, but we understood much of it.  The winery has been in the same family for 3 generations.  It produces the sparking wines of this region. They are similar to Champagne, but called Cremant de Loire and Saumur Brut.  The regular bottles are now rotated by machine, but the magnums and demi-bottles are still turned by hand.  We went into a portion of the underground ancient limestone quarry. They have 3-4 kilometers of tunnels and about 3,000, 000 bottles of wine.  There is a constant temperature of 53 degrees F.   We tasted four wines afterwards - one made mostly from chardonnay, one from mostly cabernac franc and one mostly from chenin blanc.  We bought one made from cabernac franc which is quite dark red and sparkling, so different from anything we have ever tasted. The other one we bought is mostly from chenin blanc and is rose in color.

Then, we came home, put on our shorts and sat in the garden with a baguette, cheese and some pate.  We will save the wine for company!  The garden has lovely tulips and the lilacs should bloom this week.