31 March 2011

The new Touraine map

A few weeks back, I mentioned the map of the Touraine vineyards that we were having framed (here and here). It will look good on the freshly painted white walls in our stairway or upstairs in the loft. Walt got the map back from the framing shop while I was away in North Carolina.

Touraine vineyards, including the Loir River area to the north —
the Loir runs parallel to the Loire and eventually flows into it.

So here it is. As I said, it is not yet hanging on a wall. First we have to paint the walls. One day that will happen.

(Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to see them at a larger size. If you see the little magnifying glass with a + in it, click again to enlarge the picture even more. Then click the back arrow on the upper right of your screen to return to the blog topic.)

Progressively closer views — here you can see the vineyards
from western Touraine (Chinon and Bourgueil) over to the
far east (Blois, Saint-Aignan, Valençay), as well as the Loir.

It's not easy to take a picture of a map that is 36" wide by 27" tall (that's 900 mm x 700 mm), especially when it's behind plexiglass. You can see, however, that we chose a frame that picks up the red colors of graphics and text on the map.

Here's the eastern Touraine, showing the Cher and Loire river valleys.
Saint-Aignan is directly to the east of the word Touraine on the map.

On other subjects, I'm making a big dish of coq au vin this morning — I had some red wine I wanted to use in cooking, and chicken sounded better than beef for a bourguignon. The chicken in red wine sauce will go into the oven before we go out to do some errands today.

It's still raining outside.

The view out the loft windows on a recent afternoon

I realized this morning that I didn't take any pictures of the duck breast that I salted down to make jambon de magret de canard (or in good English, duck breast proscuitto). Yesterday I took it out of the salt, wiped it clean, sprinkled some black pepper and herbs on it, and then wrapped it in a kitchen towel to cure in the refrigerator for three weeks.

Check back in late April for the result. Maybe the rain will end before then.

9 comments:

  1. The frame looks great... the colour compliments the map perfectly. Happy hanging (when you get around to it)!

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  2. Map looks great--nice colour frame and think the plexiglass is a good idea as it stops reflections.
    We've been looking for a detailed wine map like yours. We had a great one but that was years ago, it became torn & tattered so we had to throw it out. Where did you found yours?

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  3. Beautiful map and frame!

    We're growing webs between our toes here in Florida, 4 inches (10 centimetres) of rain in the last 36 hours.

    BettyAnn

    p.s. Is centimetres the right unit of measure when taling about rain?

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  4. Of course, I meant "when talking about rain?"

    BA

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  5. Love the colors on your new map and its frame!

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  6. BettyAnn, no, it's usually millimeters. 25 millimeters is about an inch (or 2.5 centimeters). So you've had 100 millimeters which is more than we ever get in a month. Get out the goggles. We've had only 10 millimeters in all the month of March.

    Hiall and Antoinette, I bought the map in Paris, but I think they had them for sale at the tourist office in Saint-Aignan a couple of years ago. When I get a chance, I'll go look to see if they still have them.

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  7. French isn't difficult enough, they have to name two rivers Loir and Loire? I like the map.

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  8. That's a nice-looking map. Do you pronounce Loir River differently than Loire River? How confusing to have two such similar names.

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  9. The names of the two rivers are pronounced exactly the same, except for the fact that one is masculin (le Loir) and the other is feminine (la Loire). One of the towns on the Loir is called Montoire-sur-le-Loir. Another is La Chartre-sur-le-Loir. That -le- makes it clear which river the town in on. Towns on the Loire are called, for example, St-Benoît-sur-Loire, Cours-sur-Loire, Pouilly-sur-Loire, etc., sans article. This is not a hard and fast rule, however.

    Starman, LOL. Just think how many towns in the U.S. are named Springfield!

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