A stop in Azay-le-Rideau

Like the Château de Chenonceau to the east, the Château d'Azay-le-Rideau is built on a river. It's just 14 miles southwest of the center of the big city of Tours. Chenonceau is on the Cher river about 20 miles east of Tours, and Azay-le-Rideau is on the Indre river. Both are tributaries of the Loire river to the north. The 19th century novelist Honoré de Balzac called Azay-le-Rideau "a diamond with its multiple facets set in the Indre" — at least that's what the Cadogan Loire guidebook says. The Michelin green guide gives it three stars.

The Château d'Azay-le-Rideau was built starting in 1518, about the same time as another grand Loire Valley monument, the Château de Chambord. An earlier building on the site had been burned down in 1418 by the forces of the French king Charles VII. You can see how massive the Renaissance-era building actually is if you notice that Walt and our friend Sue are standing in front of it in the photo above. Enlarge it and examine it carefully. Walt and Sue look really tiny.

Poulet au vin rosé

I made an itty-bitty coq au vin type dish for lunch yesterday. I had bought a big package of chicken thighs (hauts de cuisses de poulet) at Intermarché last week. I planned to cook just two of them for lunch, and if it were spring or summer Walt would probably have grilled them. Since temperatures outdoors have been at about freezin for days, I decided to cook everything like poulet au vin, another name for coq au vin And rather cook them in red wine, I cooked them in rosé wine, along with a lot of diced and sliced vegetables.

Making poulet au vin rosé meant chopping up a lot of vegetables — onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. But it was worth it. I had lardons fumés in the fridge and some home-made chicken broth in the freezer, so they went in too, with the wine. First I browned the vegetables and lardons in olive oil. Then I browned the chicken and put everything together in a wok with some thyme, a big bay leaf, and some garlic and poured the wine and broth over it all.

The chicken and other ingredients simmered on low heat in the liquid for at least an hour. As a side dish I boiled a few potatoes — they were good with the wine sauce and the vegetables. We drank red wine with our lunch and had some good French bread as well. After lunch, there was a cheese course instead of dessert. The cheeses were a Saint-Marcellin and a Bleu au lait de montagne (both cow's milk cheeses), as well as an Eskerri (a ewe's milk cheese).

Au revoir, Chinon

I'm leaving Chinon for now. I now have another reason to hope for some nice springtime weather in a few months. The reason is a trip to Chinon to see the place again and take some more pictures.

Chinon underground

Walt and I went to this winery twice with friends who were visiting from California. We tasted some wines there but we weren't really impressed. We were impressed by the big caves and tunnels cut into the rock just a kilometer from the Château de Chinon. It's called the Cave Monplaisir — cave [kahv] is the French word for wine cellar.

Apparently, Monplaisir has been cleaned up quite a bit since we were last there, in 2005. There are more recent photos and also comments on the TripAdvisor web site for the Cave Monplaisir in Chinon.