Chez Françoise in Montoire-sur-le-Loir

It was Saturday, June 6, at noontime. We had left Saint-Aignan a couple of hours earlier with the idea of having lunch in the little town of Montoire-sur-le-Loir before visiting a cousin of CHM's not far from there. The weather was gorgeous.

As we drove into the town, I saw that it was market day in Montoire. That didn't bode well for finding a place to park the car. However, it was noontime, and the market was starting to close down. The first café/restaurant we drove by had a big crowd of people in its outside seating area, but no parking in view.

I thought I'd drive around the town square and keep looking for a parking space. We had time. Just at that moment, I saw an empty space very close to the restaurant/café you see in the photos above — Chez Françoise : Le Café de la Paix — right in front of the tourist office. I had told CHM that what I wanted to eat for lunch was an omelet. Françoise had a chalkboard out on the sidewalk advertising just that.We were just lucky.

We immediately found an empty table on awning-covered the terrace. A woman came over and took our order. The daily special was goulache — Hungarian goulash — a kind of pot au feu or boiled dinner with beef and pork and potatoes. That's what CHM ordered.

More about the food tomorrow... From what I've read, Françoise turns out to be married to a vigneron named Jean Martellière who has his winery just on the edge of Montoire. He makes wines from Chenin Blanc grapes grown in the small Jasnières vineyard just east of town, and from Pineau d'Aunis grapes that are a local specialty in the Coteaux du Loir and Coteaux du Vendômois appellations.

Here in the Cher Valley, Pineau d'Aunis is mostly made into rosé wines, which are dry and slightly peppery — we get ours right now from a man named François Leclair over in the wine village called Pouillé. Up in the Loir Valley, both rosé and red wines are made from Pineau d'Aunis grapes. Françoise features the Martellière wines in her café, which is both a restaurant and a bar à vins. (For all I know, Françoise and Jean have both retired now...) I'm looking forward to going back to Montoire soon to find out more about the Val de Loir and its wines.

Mourning

Several weeks ago I wrote on this blog about a relative in North Carolina who had fallen ill. It was my mother's younger sister, an aunt that I grew up with and loved. She was my aunt, but she was more a friend or a big sister to me. She, my mother, and I had traveled together on many trips in North and South Carolina, in California, and in France over the past 25 years. We had great adventures, laughed at each other and ourselves, and just enjoyed our time together.

Well, yesterday afternoon, my aunt Ann passed away at the age of 79. Her illness lasted a month and she was in a coma in the hospital for most of that time. My thoughts are with my aunt's two children — especially with her daughter, who spent nearly 24 hours a day with Ann at the hospital for the past month. Now the mourning can begin. We will all miss Ann for a long time to come, but we will also enjoy some very vivid memories of the good times — and the not so good — that we all had together.

For now, here are a few more photos that I took on June 6 in Lavardin, when CHM and I went up there. Not all of them are technically great, but I want to post them to show you more of Lavardin and to continue my series of posts about what this whole part of France is like. The two photos below are details of the one just above.

Lavardin is also known for the ruins of an imposing château on a hilltop overlooking the village. One day I'd like to go back and go up into the old building to see the view from up there.

Some of the paintings in the Lavardin church are pretty mysterious. Judge for yourself.

The day CHM and I stopped and took photos in Lavardin, we had lunch in neighboring Montoire-sur-le-Loire. More about that tomorrow...

Wall paintings at the church in Lavardin (vallée du Loir)

One of the places I went lately and hadn't seen in a long time — 10 years, maybe — is the plus beau village called Lavardin. It's near Montoire-sur-le-Loir and about 90 minutes north of Saint-Aignan by car. The Loir is a smaller river that is not too far north of the larger Loire, to which it runs roughly parallel for a good part of its course. That Loir Valley is worth exploring for its landscapes, villages, old buildings, wines, and cheeses.

I knew that there were wall paintings in the church at Lavardin (which is dedicated to Saint-Genest) but I'd never been inside before. I was lucky to be there, with CHM, on a bright sunny afternoon. I took a lot of photos with my Canon camera. I didn't use a flash, and I didn't use a tripod or even a monopod. For all these photos, the camera was hand-held.

The Saint-Genest church certainly makes Lavardin worth a stop. Other churches or chapels within a few hours of Saint-Aignan by car also have impressive wall paintings — at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, for example, or in Palluau-sur-Indre, and even in the Saint-Aignan church itself. I'm including links to some posts on these churches.

Apparently, these paintings were re-discovered by a priest about a hundred years ago. They had been painted over with whitewash sometime after the Renaissance period, at a time when medieval art was no longer appreciated or admired. France had entered its classical period, and "primitive" art was not the fashion.

These wall paintings, often called fresques in French, date back as far as the 12th century. That's when a lot of France's still-existing churches were built. Nowadays we are used to seeing churches that are very plain inside (except for their stained glass windows) but all those centuries ago most of the churches were painted inside, the way these are. But I'm no expert...

Restaurant desserts around central France

We had a lot of meals in restaurants while CHM was visiting over the first half of June. The restaurants where we had good food — in Mortagne-au-Perche, Étampes, Vailly-sur-Sauldre, Loches, and Montoire-sur-le-Loir — served good sweets. Many of the desserts were French classics.

This one is a clafoutis aux cerises, a kind of moist pudding cake with whole sweet cherries cooked in it. The restaurant was Le Quai in Étampes, near Paris.

Canon SX700

At dinner one Sunday night in the restaurant at the Hôtel du Tribunal in Mortagne-au-Perche, I had this apricot dessert. It included a scoop of sorbet on a bed of finely chopped pistachio nuts, and an apricot cake with a lot of whipped cream on top.

Canon SX700

In Vailly-sur-Sauldre, near the wine village of Sancerre, I had a "floating island" — une île flottante — which is puffs of sweetened and beaten egg white served on a "sea" of crème anglaise (egg custard) flavored with caramel. The restaurant was the Hôtel-Restaurant du Marché.

Panasonic ZS1 (old model)

A few days later in Loches, at the restaurant called La Gerbe d'Or, our dessert on the day's special menu was lightly cooked diced apples served with a sabayon (zabaglione in Italian) cream made with egg yolks and sweet wine.

Panasonic TZ60

On a Saturday in Montoire-sur-le-Loire, in a small restaurant / wine bar called Le Café de la Paix (Chez Françoise), our dessert was a classic far breton. It's a very moist cake — a sort of firm, creamy pudding, really — made with eggs, cream, sugar, and prunes.

Canon SX700

Finally, at the Relais d'Artémis in Bracieux, near Chambord and Blois, our dessert was this Paris-Brest — a puff pastry shell filled with a coffee-flavored pastry cream and garnished with sliced almonds and a crispy waffle.

Panasonic TZ60

Driving to Blois in the Citroën

About a week ago, we drove up to Blois to take CHM to the train station. Walt was at the wheel, and I sat in the back seat. One reason for sitting in back is that I wanted to see how comfortable the Citroën felt from back there.

Walt driving the Citroën... No, 86 is not the temperature. It's the speed in kilometers per hour (about 55 mph).

 I snapped a shot as we drove past the Château de Cheverny, just 12 or 15 miles north of our house.

I don't usually post portraits of people here, but I like this one of our friend CHM, a Parisian who has lived in the U.S. for 45 years. He usually spends a week or 10 days with us in the summer nowadays.

We had eaten lunch in Bracieux, just south of the 16th-century Château de Chambord, which we then drove past on our way to Blois and the train station. I snapped this from the car.

I was comfortable in the back seat of the Citroën, with sufficient leg room. Four months after buying the car, I feel very lucky to have gotten such a good deal on a previously owned vehicle. I've driven it about 3000 kilometers since I bought it in February — four months ago. That's just short of 2,000 miles — the distance I drove in a month when I lived in California.

A Célestine sleep-over

Susan and Simon of the local Days on the Claise blog drove their vintage Citroën Traction Avant to Saint-Aignan Friday evening, on their way to a Saturday event over near Vierzon. They asked us if they could park Célestine in our driveway, which they prefer to leaving her out in public overnight.

I think Célestine is about 60 years old. Simon or Susan might tell us if I'm mistaken. I hope I'm not being indiscreet about the lady's age... The last Traction car rolled off the assembly line in 1957, apparently. The famous Citroën DS (déesse or goddess) was its successor. My Citroën C4 is only a distant descendant.

Susan and Simon run a business called Loire Valley Time Travel. They design custom tours for people who want to spend a day, or a few days, being driven around French château country in a classic car to see the sights.

I was afraid that the Traction wouldn't fit through our front gate, but I shouldn't have worried. Simon backed the car right in — no muss and no fuss. Célestine is not as wide or as long as she looks in photos.

During the night, Bertie the black cat jumped up on Célestine and walked around on her roof. Luckily, the car was under a cover, as you can see in the first photo above, so the paw prints didn't mar the car's shiny black paint.

Panasonic pictures of frogs and flowers

We've been hearing them croak for weeks, but the frogs have been very shy this year. Actually, I wasn't sure whether they were toads or frogs, but toads don't stay in the water very long here. They return to dry land as soon has they have bred and spawned, I think.

So these are definitely frogs. The Panasonic camera proved it to me. They are a Kermit-like green in color. And they seem bolder, all of a sudden. I hope they are eating a ton of mosquito wrigglers as they swim around in the pond out back and go "ribbit".

Seriously, the camera is great. I went out yesterday morning and snapped just more than 100 photos over the course of my 45 minute walk with the dog. I saw a lot of plants and a lot of butterflies. The photo below is one that I took of a butterfly at about 30 paces, using macro mode and a long zoom.

I took the photo of daisies, below, the same way — macro mode, with a long zoom. It came out pretty sharp.

And there were a lot of little morning-glory-type flowers on the ground all around the vineyard plots. They're much smaller than this one might look. The flower was probably less than an inch across.

It's raining today and it's Walt's morning to walk Callie, so I won't be getting any new photos this morning. Maybe on the afternoon walk... if the sun comes back out.

Local news

On Wednesday, we drove CHM up to Blois so he could catch his train back to Paris. We had lunch at a restaurant near the Château de Chambord  — Le Relais d'Artémis  is the name of the restaurant — and arrived at the train station in Blois at about three o'clock.

We parked the car and as we walked over to the main entrance of the station we saw a man with a microphone and a woman with a video camera approach us. They were doing a report for the local France 3 television channel on the new pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the train tracks, which was to be opened to the public on Friday. What did we think of it?

I answered their question on camera, and the report appeared on the France 3 local news that evening. I found it on line and managed to post it to Youtube yesterday. I couldn't find any way to download the video, so I just played it on my computer and "filmed" it with my new Panasonic Lumix camera. It's not the best quality, but it's watchable. I'm the second person interviewed, toward the end of the report. It's all in French, and it might be a challenge to figure out what's being said, but here it is anyway.

The pedestrian bridge or passerelle is an ultra-modern metal structure that stands in stark contrast to the old 19th century train station in Blois. Some question the architecture. The stated purpose of the bridge is to form a new, shorter link between the town's historic center and the neighborhoods to the south and west, where thousands of low- to medium-income people, including many immigrants, live in post-war apartment complexes. When the rail line and station were built, they must have been on the edge of the town, but now they effectively divide Blois in two. The new bridge is a solution to that problem, say the people responsible for getting it built.

Grape flowers, cameras, and comments

These are grape flowers. As you can see, the individual flowers are tiny. All the vines are in flower right now, but you have to look closely to notice that fact. By the way, I took this photo with the Canon SX700 HS camera.

I haven't modified or enhanced the photo in any way other than re-sizing it to 1600 x 1600 pixels, because that seems to be the biggest photo I can upload to Blogger. To see it at that size, you have to click on it, maybe twice. As you see it above, it is only 860 x 860 pixels. The Canon SX700 is capable of taking photos like this one.

So why did I buy another new camera? Well, as I said, I missed the Panasonic Lumix that I had before. Actually, this is my fourth Lumix since about 2007, and I've been happy with all of them. Look at this test photo I took with the new Lumix DMC-TZ60 (called the DMC ZS40 in North America):

And then look at this one, taken with the Canon SX700:

I did my best to take the two photos in identical conditions. Again, I have only cropped and resized them for posting in Blogger. To my eye, the Lumix photo is much sharper, expecially towards the top of the image. I'm happy with that. Here's a photo of tiny yellow flowers that I took with the Lumix TZ60 yesterday:

Click on all the photos to see them at full size, as always.

Meanwhile, this morning, I got a nice comment from a reader called NorthwestUSA. It said:

My grandmother was born in 1897 and raised at Castle Aiguevives (she was adamant that it was a castle and not a manor). Her father and grandfather were groundskeepers and her mother was the cook for the staff. She said it was an English widow that lived there and she had 2 sons and they were into horses. Wonder if it's still the same family? She had a postcard of the abbey and I was able to locate it by satellite map and see the surrounding area but the castle was hidden by trees so THANK YOU for sharing your picture of the house. That is a real treat to see. My grandmother was a WWI war bride and left France for the U.S. in 1919 and only made 2 trips back, 1928 and 1948. She died at 99 years of age.

Comments like this are one of the reasons I keep doing this blog. Besides the fact that I love taking photos, and I have to do something with them all! The post that NorthwestUSA commented on is this one, Aiguevives abbey near Montrichard, from 2006. Here's an even larger view of the château or manor house shown in my post:

Again, click on the photo to see it at full size (1475 x 1476 pixels) on your monitor. I took it on March 2, 2006, with an old Canon camera I had back then, before I got my first Panasonic digital camera (the TZ3).

Another note: it was 12 years ago today that we moved into our house at La Renaudière outside Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher in the Loire Valley region of France. Wow.

Alençon — and Saint-Aignan — in the rain

It was Sunday, May 31, late in the day, that saw us driving around the lower Normandy town of Alençon in a steady rain. We were looking for a place to have an afternoon cup of tea or coffee, but nothing much was open. Only one café had its shutters up and the lights on, but there were so many cars parked in that central neighborhood that we had to give up trying to find a space to put the car in.

We drove into the area of semi-pedestrianized streets around the town's church and tourist office just to have a look. The church, above, has an elaborately decorated front façade, as you can see in the photo above.

I went inside and took a couple of photos of stained glass windows, above and below. Those were about the most colorful elements in the Alençon decor on a wet Sunday afternoon.

The town's château, long used as a prison (as many châteaux have been used over the centuries) is a hulking brown mass sitting in the middle of the old town (below). In the rain, it's even hulkier.

Around the château, two other main monuments — the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) and the Palais de Justice (courthouse), below — are also massive grayish-brown stone constructions.

Meanwhile, here in Saint-Aignan our weather yesterday was similar to what we experienced in Alençon 10 days ago. It rained almost all day. We were on the road again, driving CHM up to Blois to put him on the train back to Paris. We took advantage of the drive to have lunch in a favorite restaurant near the Château de Chambord. CHM's 10-day visit just flew by.