Sancerre
/6th October, 2010 (Sally)
It is autumn, the trees are flaunting shades of yellow and gold, with flames of brilliant red where the Virginia creeper has climbed through the branches or crawled over a building. No more frosts as yet so the leaves are hanging on but everywhere is the patter of falling nuts. Chestnuts, acorns and walnuts litter the roads and tow paths. I have collected three times as many as I have in previous years as people are too busy with the grape harvest to bother with a few nuts. Now I am collecting recipes to make sure they are all used. A crop of crab apples at one stop were also too tempting to leave; they have been made into jars of spiced crab apples to go with a roast of guinea fowl or chicken.
Our other harvest gathering has been among the vineyards of Sancerre. We arrived there a week ago expecting to see all the grapes harvested but were surprised, pleasantly so, to see it had only just begun. Unusually late but still a good year according to the growers. We've had some lovely sunny clear days so have taken advantage of them to take our motorbikes and head up into the vineyards and see it all happening up close. Almost all the local picking is done by machines which doesn't quite have the same romantic feel of the basket and the horse drawn dray, but with 5,000 ha to be picked it would be a mighty task to do it the old way. We did see two groups of hand pickers, then watched a machine pick a whole row in less than five minutes. If you want to watch the traditional harvest one needs to be in Champagne or Burgundy.
Sancerre is a delightful town, an original fortified village sitting high above the Loire. Like most places in France it has had its share of bloody history. They chose the wrong religion back in the times of the Huegunots and the king sent 7,000 soldiers to lay seige to the town. After 277 days, they were virtually starved out of their stronghold, all the fortifications were demolished and they paid a very hefty fine but they at least kept their heads. Today it is a charming stop on the Wine Route with a host of good restaurants and some lovely walks and vistas.
We went from there to Chavignol, to revisit Henri Bourgoise's caves. We had been there and sampled their wines in 2008. Chavignol is a very small village that has twenty wine makers so very little happens in Chavignol that isn't directly connected to the grape — this is the region for France's best sauvignon blanc wines. There was a TV interview taking place as we went into the tasting room and we heard enough to understand that they were discussing the virtues of New Zealand, or more particularly Marlborough wines. It wasn't long before we had a conversation going with Henri himself who owns a vineyard in Marlborough as well as several throughout the region here. He asked us our connection and when we said we came from Christchurch he grabbed the bar and did a very good imitation of being rocked by an earthquake.
As well as wine this area is well known for Crottin de Chavignol, the goats cheese that seems to be made at every farm house along this stretch of the Loire. Try as I might it is not a flavour that I can tolerate, too many memories of smelly old goats from my childhood on a farm. It features in many of the dishes in the restaurants. I decide every year I will give it one more chance, but then I reckon there are at least 300 other French cheeses yet to be sampled so why bother. I have a guide book to Cheese onboard and I do try to buy the local cheese as we travel through the various areas. However my tasting notes leave many pages unmarked, one would need to be in France a lifetime to sample all the different varieties.
We have also spent a few days at Belleville sur Loire, a village which lives up to its name providing a lovely grassed quay with free water and electricity. The quay is less than a kilometre away from the very prominant nuclear power station so we used the opportunity to do the visitors tour of the extensive and informative visitor's centre. As one would expect there was a huge emphasis on safety. However, the local paper has since had a headline of the strike by the safety offiicers at Belleville. Just one of the many strikes in France at the moment as the Government tries to suggest that the retirement age may have to be raised by two years — to 62. I wonder who will win this one. France is almost totally dependent on nuclear energy with over fifty reactors around the country. They make sure the neighbouring towns are well looked after by providing new schools, sporting facilities and swimming pools and in this case providing employment to 600 people. No small feat in rural France.
From the 21st Century to the 13th. We went the next day to revisit Guédelon, where they are building a castle using the same techniques, plans and building tools that would have been used in 1229. What a project. It is in an old quarry set in an oak forest and all materials are coming off the site: stone [60,000 tons], clay for tiles, sand, water, and wood. Thirty-five full time employees assisted by numerous volunteers, dressed in smocks, with handmade tools are doing everything the original way. As well as the castle they have built a village complete with pigs, sheep, [original breeds] a rope maker, basket maker, weaving house, tile making shed with kiln and a forge. We were fascinated to watch the squirrel cages which are used to raise all the building materials to the appropriate heights. They look a bit like the wheels you see in a pet mouse's cage, but on a grander scale. We observed one in action where one man walking inside took a load of stone from ground level up two floors. One has to admire the attention to detail and aspects of historical research. It is providing a great way for everyone to learn and appreciate the work that went into all the structures we see in our travels. Good to see bus loads of school kids there too, what a great experience for them. One wonders what will become of it when it is finished as the main attraction is definitely in the construction process. Once completed it will become another chateau in a land of chateaux all competing for the tourist dollar. At one place we went to we were informed that France has 40,000 sites which are classified historical monuments, of which 20,000 are in private hands, so as one can imagine you need to have some good marketing advantages to get the feet through the doors, or the monies in the till. It is not enough to have a chateau or a castle, one needs to have a museum of some variety and we have seen some interesting and very different displays — fishing museum, hunting, art of course, and gardens as well as summer spectaculars and sound-and-light shows.
Our last stop was at La Charité, an old, very old, Cluny site on the pilgrim route to Santiego de Compostela. It was consecrated in 1159, and much of the original still stands as the present town church even though a good portion was destroyed during the revolution. When you see the building techniques that were used, it makes the finished building even more remarkable. Just another great memory from a year so full of them.