Saturday 21st July 2007
Day's Progress: 5 kilometres - just up the canal (Total 300kms : 152 locks)
We had a very short trip today from our overnight spot. We travelled about 5 kilometres to moor our boat at St Thibault and will spend the night here. St Satur is on the other side of the canal and we will explore there tomorrow.
There is a very friendly black Labrador at our mooring. She is lovely and very fat and has a large tag hanging from her collar saying “NO FOOD” in 4 languages.
We took a taxi up to Sancerre – famous for its wines – and a very famous fortress town in France. Spectacular view from the top – overlooking vineyards and fields and the rivers, the Loire valley …wow what a sight. And you can see a huge nuclear power station in the distance.
We walked around the old town and checked out the little streets and shops. The place is a bit touristy but nice. Baskets and tubs of flowers all over – very colourful. We had lunch at a restaurant called La Tour. It was a splendid meal. A little palate cleanser was a small egg with the top neatly cut off – the entire yolk (soft) was at
the bottom of the shell topped with a cinnamon flavoured mousse – yummy. Then I had monk fish with mashed potato and a yellow mousse/foam thing, it was very nice. Steve was a bit disappointed with the veal dish he had – said it did not have much flavour. I had cheese for dessert – bliss. Steve had a chocolate pudding dripping with dark chocolate and little swirls of gold foil! I guess that made up for the veal.
We then went looking around again and although there were a n
umber of ceramic shops the work looked heavy and clumsy – I was not impressed. There were lovley little lanes and the Cathedral was impressive. We found a smallish cave and went in to look around and stock up. The lady in this shop told us that this shop represented 22 winemakers and many of the vineyards we could see from the town supplied the grapes. She slapped flints together to demonstrate the “gunpowder” smell so that we could taste the flint in the wine! The grapes in that area grow in flinty soil and yes, you could taste it. There were also examples of soil with old marine shells in it – you could taste the slight calcium taste of this wine. We tasted Rose and whites. The rose was called Bleeding Rose. We bought Sancerre Rose 2005, De Vin Serge le Roux, 2005 Reserve Serge le Roux, Dezat 2006. What a fab place this shop was.
We had a very short trip today from our overnight spot. We travelled about 5 kilometres to moor our boat at St Thibault and will spend the night here. St Satur is on the other side of the canal and we will explore there tomorrow.
There is a very friendly black Labrador at our mooring. She is lovely and very fat and has a large tag hanging from her collar saying “NO FOOD” in 4 languages.
We took a taxi up to Sancerre – famous for its wines – and a very famous fortress town in France. Spectacular view from the top – overlooking vineyards and fields and the rivers, the Loire valley …wow what a sight. And you can see a huge nuclear power station in the distance.
We walked around the old town and checked out the little streets and shops. The place is a bit touristy but nice. Baskets and tubs of flowers all over – very colourful. We had lunch at a restaurant called La Tour. It was a splendid meal. A little palate cleanser was a small egg with the top neatly cut off – the entire yolk (soft) was at
the bottom of the shell topped with a cinnamon flavoured mousse – yummy. Then I had monk fish with mashed potato and a yellow mousse/foam thing, it was very nice. Steve was a bit disappointed with the veal dish he had – said it did not have much flavour. I had cheese for dessert – bliss. Steve had a chocolate pudding dripping with dark chocolate and little swirls of gold foil! I guess that made up for the veal.We then went looking around again and although there were a n
umber of ceramic shops the work looked heavy and clumsy – I was not impressed. There were lovley little lanes and the Cathedral was impressive. We found a smallish cave and went in to look around and stock up. The lady in this shop told us that this shop represented 22 winemakers and many of the vineyards we could see from the town supplied the grapes. She slapped flints together to demonstrate the “gunpowder” smell so that we could taste the flint in the wine! The grapes in that area grow in flinty soil and yes, you could taste it. There were also examples of soil with old marine shells in it – you could taste the slight calcium taste of this wine. We tasted Rose and whites. The rose was called Bleeding Rose. We bought Sancerre Rose 2005, De Vin Serge le Roux, 2005 Reserve Serge le Roux, Dezat 2006. What a fab place this shop was.
The WW1 memorial was very beautiful. It is off a mother and her small children - all weeping.
No comments:
Post a Comment