We did a little bit of sightseeing when our friend Sue was here for a week in March 2004, but not a lot. I think we just didn't want to drive around a lot. Sue had visited the Loire Valley in the year 2000. We stayed close to Saint-Aignan. These are some of the sights we did see. Not one was farther than 25 miles from our house.
Château de la Bourdaisière Château d'Amboise
Our "château" from across the Renaudière vineyard outside Saint-Aignan
Château de Montpoupon Château de Saint-Aignan
Les châteaux du coin.
ReplyDeleteWhen you and I went to La Bourdaisière, I didn’t know it was the home of Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière d’Estrées whose daughter Gabrielle was one of the most famous of Henri IV’s mistresses.
I knew, though, the chåteau had been bought by two brothers, the princes of Broglie.
What I didn’t know was that one of them, (a man after my heart), who call himself “ le prince jardinier” is interested in tomatoes
https://www.vogue.com/article/how-a-french-prince-is-saving-the-world-from-tasteless-tomatoes
I don’t know what the other prince is doing. Maybe he is the winner of the bread to eat with the tomatoes?
Beautiful view of the château de Saint-Aignan.
Let’s see if the link will work?
Deletehttps://www.vogue.com/article/how-a-french-prince-is-saving-the-world-from-tasteless-tomatoes
The historical references to Henri IV are very interesting to French people but for most Americans describing all that is noise. Sorry, but it's true. As for tomatoes, I've known for at least 20 years that the château de la Bourdaisière was an important tomato conservatory. I don't know why I never blogged about it, except that since Walt and I had fantastic tomato crops from the vegetable garden in our back yard, we didn't go to La Bourdaisière to buy tomatoes. I must have mentioned it to you, especially since we went to La Bordaisière together. I also went there once with Peter Hertzmann and he took a lot of photos of tomato plants in the château's garden.
DeleteBoth of those links worked just fine. Thanks for them.
DeleteDo you remember when it was that we went to La Bourdaisière?
DeleteBecause the building was so pretty, I googled Château de la Bourdaisière. Apparently they rent rooms there, it looks pretty nice and reasonably priced. Chm, that link to the vogue article was very interesting - so many wonderful varieties of tomatoes he grows! I like them chopped for bruschetta and greek salads.
DeleteNo idea when we went there. If I had access to my photos maybe I could tell, but…
Deletebut
I haven't yet found any posts on my blog that would tell me when it was that we went there.
DeleteYour "château" looks very attractive -)!
ReplyDeleteWe like it, even though there's always a lot of work to be done and finding contractors isn't easy. It's starting to feel like spring here and I'm looking forward to the new season.
DeleteAnonymous was Jan from Perth
ReplyDeleteWe need to spend a month exploring that corner of the world.
ReplyDeleteThe châteaux are interesting and the wines are delicious. The countryside is pretty without being really spectacular. And there's always good food.
DeleteI don't remember seeing La Bourdaisière. I am a fan of a good tomato. I never had one to match the tomatoes my dad grew in his Kentucky garden. There's something about the soil there. The tomato stuff is more interesting to me than the history of the mistresses.
ReplyDeleteAll those names of famous or infamous French historical figures are confusing and often seem irrelevant. I like having some notions of French history, but a little goes a long way.
DeleteThere’s a lot to see and do within 25 miles of your house.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
It's true, if you're interested in châteaux! Or wine.
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