Another wonderful day! And...in the 80's!

Today was another clear, sunny day in the Loire Valley.  After a leisurely morning, we drove to Montreuil-Bellay to stroll around the village, castle and old church, which we went in.  From there, we drove along the Loire to Montsoreau where we had a picnic of baguette, ham and cheese, sitting in the sun, which was actually too hot...not that we will complain!

From there, we drove back to Saumur and walked around the chateau.  Then, we went to the Caves of the Bouvet-Ladubay winery.  We had a tour in English from Violaine.  Unfortunately, the caves there are only for tourists and only the half-bottles and magnums are actually produced on the site, so it was not quite as good a tour as the Louis de Grenelle winery, but it was still cool to be in the underground caves.  Violaine pointed out the chimneys where the rock was taken up as well as the smaller chimneys which were for the men to climb up.  She said that the tunnels were started in the Ninth Century.  Afterwards, we tasted six different wines and she did a wonderful job explaining the difference between Saumur Brut and Crement.  Basically, all Crements are hand picked and they can come from the entire Loire Valley region.  In addition, they can mix the 3 grapes in any combination, whereas, Saumur Brut must have 80% Chenin Blanc grapes.  We bought 2 bottles.

Then, we came 'home' and had a feast - a white pasta that Mark made with mushrooms, his own roasted tomatoes, onions, sausages and asparagus.   We had the meal in the garden; the sun does not go down until 8:30 which is great.