Just in case regular readers have wondered where I’ve got to, I’ve been gardening flat out since we arrived in Blois on Thursday afternoon. It’s amazing just just how quickly the vegetation grows at this time of year. I have a theory about weeds too. As soon as you plant something that you want to grow, a similar-looking weed springs up! So I have been doing a lot of weeding.
I was worried about our geraniums which didn’t look as though they were going to produce many flowers but I think they were just waiting for the warmer weather.
After spending another day gardening and packing, we’re all set for our annual one-month cycling holiday – back to Germany again. Last year we cycled 1100 K along the Danube and I think it was my most enjoyable holiday yet.
After reading about Saxon Switzerland on Travel Notes and Beyond, we decided we would cycle along the Elbe this year. However, we are stopping off along the Moselle on the way and starting with an initial 4-night stay in Koblenz.
We’ve been to Romorantin in Sologne before and loved the fresh produce market. At the bread baking day in Les Grouets, Le Lion d’or was recommended to us as being one of the best restaurants in the region so we’ve decided to try it out for our 16th wedding anniversary.
We’re coming directly from Paris so we’ve timed it to arrive at about 12.30 pm. We leave slightly later than planned and encounter traffic jams. Traffic is obviously being rerouted for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I’m a bit on edge because I hate being late but as we approach the turn-off to Chartres, things get back to normal.
It’s 12.45 when we park outside the hotel restaurant which is perfect. I straighten out my linen skirt which maybe isn’t the best choice for a 2 1/2 hour car ride and we walk in. The garden is visible from the doorway and it looks incredibly inviting. The service is friendly and discreet and remains so throughout.
The set menu is 68 euro for 3 set courses (no choice) and doesn’t tempt us. We decide to order from the regular menu and choose local specialities – asparagus, which Sologne is famous for, a chanterelle mushroom vol au vent, rabbit and pigeon.
To accompany them, after our initial glass of champagne, we choose two local whites (a glass each, of course, not a bottle): a cour cheverny with the famous romorantin grape imported by François I and a touraine sauvignon, both of which are excellent. There is only one local red sold by the glass, a respectable saumur champigny, so we take the only other choice, a tarn, to accompany the pigeon.
We choose not to have dessert as I notice that the people at the next table have an excellent selection of mignardises with their coffee.
The perfect weather, surroundings and service help us to digest the 328 euro bill. We regret that not one of the dishes we ate flattered our taste buds which is really the only criteria for good cuisine, no matter what the price. In our books, Les Hauts de Loire, at Onzain halfway between Blois and Chaumont, remains by far the best dining experience within an hour’s drive of home.
The weather is so beautiful that as soon as we reach Closerie Falaiseau, we unpack the car, change into more comfortable clothes and drive to the bike path on the other side of Blois. By 5 pm, we’re in the saddle.
It’s lovely to be back on our bikes after the awful month of cold and rain we’ve just experienced. We keep to the bike path that is part of Eurovélo 6 (the one that took us along the Danube last summer) and runs along the Loire.
The roses are just stunning in some of the little villages such as Cour sur Loire. We stop to take photos of the lavoir, relieved that it’s not pelting with rain the way it was last time we were here.
We pass some free-range chickens and guinea-fowls and eventually get to the outskirts of Mer. You’d think with a name like that that it would be on the coast but in fact mer comes from mera meaning marsh.
I see a sign advertising a bar/grocery store/local wine store called L’Epicerie and soon see it on the left before we get to the centre of the town. We put our bikes in the racks and make our way to the inviting courtyard. We treat ourselves to a very cold local sauvignon but refuse the Iberian platter. We’re not really hungry, I have to say!
We start chatting with the very friendly owner and learn she also has a brocante. Goodness, what a find! The grocery shop is full of all sorts of local foods and delicacies, including chocolate champagne glasses.
The brocante, which is more like an antique store, is beautifully kept with quite a large range of interesting finds. Unfortunately, nothing takes our eye but we’ll be back another day.
By the time we get back to the car, after 40 k and over 2 ½ hours in the saddle, I’m rather relieved that next day is going to be relâche!
We started the week in Paris and finished up in Blois. We’re moving into summer at last with the return of the warm weather and the lovely long twilight. The first photo was taken at about 7.15 pm and the second around 9 pm. It’s still light at 10.30 as we approach the longest day of the year on 21st June – the summer solstice.
Back in Blois for a week and loving the roses! The previous owners told us the roses on the front steps were Pierre Ronsard, but we now know they are not. We’re trying to track down their name.
A meeting with some Australian friends on a sunny day took me to my favourite café in the Tuileries – Chez Diane. On the way back, I went to see my favourite rose in the Palais Royal gardens. I don’t know what it’s called but it has the most amazing fragrance. We’re going to have another try at growing it from a cutting in August.
Back in Paris this week, trying to recover from our renovation stint! A favourite cousin came through Paris so we spent a delightful afternoon catching up in the Tuileries at Café Diane because it really does have the best view.
We have been enjoying spring so much in Blois that we are sad to go back to Paris even though it will be a break from our travaux! We can’t get enough of our wisteria at Closerie Falaiseau. We also love the wisteria at the entrance to the house in our original John Modesitt oil painting. I’ve posted a photo of the house on Blois Daily Photo.
There is a beautiful lilac bush just across the road from our house in a large vacant lot followed by meadowland that goes down to the Loire. Our rainwater flows into the vacant lot so Jean Michel keeps the area free of brambles and nettles. He has also cleared a parking space next to it. The lilac bush is on the left.
The weather is lovely and we’re having our tea in the garden, making the most of the spring flowers. Jean Michel suddenly gets up and says, “More people cutting the lilac”. He opens the gate, sees an elderly lady and a young man and says “Hello. I would really appreciate it if you could cut the lilac from the back of the bush and not the front. That way, everyone can appreciate it.”
The lady looks surprised. “Ah”, she says, “but figurez-vous (which means something like believe it or not), the lilac was planted by my father. I used to live in this house”. “Well”, we say, “that’s quite different”. “Won’t you come in”, I add, trying not to seem too excited, “I have lots of questions to ask you”.
The lady is loquacious, to say the least, while her 30-year old son is more reserved. She explains how the garden and the house were divided into two. There was a stone wall separating the garden starting at the drain pipe on the left of the last door on the right and ending where my planters are now. She and her parents and six siblings lived in the left half.
Downstairs, the room corresponding to the archway on the left was a combined living room and kitchen with a bathroom behind and the boys’ bedroom was on the right. I learn, to my disappointment, that the stone sink and bench, which I thought were original features of the house, were added by the people who began restoring the house before our previous owners bought it.
Upstairs, where she loved to sit and read, were the other bedrooms. Her father was a bricklayer and had a large vegetable garden in the vacant alotment across the road. She tells us that she had the most wonderful parents imaginable, that the house was always full of people and that at Christmas, they had parties where everyone sang and danced until 6 o’clock in the morning.
“I call it la Maison du bonheur (the house of happiness)”, she says. She now lives in a flat in Blois, overlooking the Loire, “because”, she explains, “I love the Loire almost as much as this house. There used to be a sandy beach on the edge of the river and we used to love going there to play and sunbake.”
But the children grew up and married and the house was too big for her parents so they moved to the little house next door. Her son explains that his grandparents used to look after him during the day and he went to the school down the road, which is now closed. Now in his early thirties, he confesses that it has always been his dream to buy the house one day.
Their nostaglia is palpable. The little old lady talks non-stop and is obviously delighted to be able to share her memories with us and not at all interested in seeing the inside of the house which she doesn’t recognise. She is obviously disorientated so we go outside again. In response to something she says, I ask her how old she is. She looks a little surprised and replies 64.
I try not to look as shocked as I feel. I would have said she was 80! I think about it later and I finally come to the conclusion that her nostalgia for the past has prevented her from entering the modern world. She looks the age her mother would have had.
Jean Michel takes his secateurs and cuts her a huge bouquet of lilac from behind the bush this time. She promises to come back again at the end of the year after we’ve moved here for good to show us her old black and white photos of the inside of the house. We promise in the meantime to make the most of our House of Happiness.
It’s now officially spring and we’re back in Blois for another couple of weeks. We couldn’t get over the difference in how many leaves have appeared on the trees in such a short time. The tulips are out as well so a visit to Château de Cheverny is scheduled for this week to see the 60,000 tulips planted every year. In the meantime, here are my favourites at Closerie Falaiseau and the view from upstairs.
We have just spent a week in Paris and are returning to Blois tomorrow for two weeks. I’m so looking forward to it! Although spring is present in Paris, it pales in comparison with the Loire Valley! Here are some spring photos anyway!
For more on the Night Revellers’ Kiosk, click here.
You can see the Bourse du Commerce (Commodities Market) in the back ground.