Chinon

We move on now to Chinon, a larger town on the Vienne River. Here, the ruins of a 12th century fortress dominate the river valley. Many of the castle buildings still stand and can be visited, including the Tour de l'Horloge (clocktower) and the Donjon du Coudray.

The Tour de l'Horloge towers above the town of Chinon.

Chinon, the town, is a wonderful place to wander around in. It's sandwiched in between the flanks of the plateau on which the castle sits and the river below. It's much less touristy a place than Azay, with shops, restaurants and cafés, and a weekly market that serve the local population (les Chinonais).

Chinon seen from the château.

While Chinon was originally a gallo-roman stronghold, the fort and castle that are there today date from the time of King Henry II Plantagenet, king of England in the 12th century. This part of France then belonged to England. Henry and his second wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, are buried not far from Chinon at the abbey of Fontevraud.

Small streets in Chinon make their way up to the fortress on the heights.

Two of their sons, Richard the Lionhearted (Richard Cœur de Lion) and John Lackland (Jean sans Terre), each made Chinon their base of operations when they succeeded Henry as king. The Hollywood movie, "The Lion In Winter," starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, was set in and filmed partly in Chinon.

The Vienne River at Chinon.

In addition to its château and historic town, Chinon is a well-known and respected wine region of France. The principle varietal grown in the area is cabernet-franc. Apparently the ancestors of this grape were brought to the region by the romans, and it was widely cultivated in the area during the time of Henry II Plantagenet.

A Chinon vineyard on the higher banks of the Vienne valley.

Ken and I have made several special trips to the Chinon area to buy wine since we moved to the Loire region in 2003. It's a great day trip for us that includes lunch (summer picnics are fun), a little sightseeing, and tasting before we buy.

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By the way, I forgot to mention a few posts back that the inhabitants of Amboise are called les Ambaciens and the people of Vouvray are les Vouvrillons. Most of my information about these places comes from the Guide Michelin. The photos are mine (shameless plug).

Azay-Le-Rideau

One of the turrets at Azay is reflected in the moat which is actually part of the river Indre.

Just to the west and a bit south of the city of Tours, on the Indre river (a tributary of the Loire), is the town of Azay-le-Rideau, home to a very pretty renaissance château. In fact, the castle is built right on the river, which is dammed and controlled to produce a calm reflecting moat around the building.

The castle sitting in its reflecting moat.

The castle is set in a verdant park just adjacent to the center of town (where you'll find shops and places to eat). The current building was built in the early 16th century, but the place originally belonged to a knight of King Philippe Auguste named Ridel d'Azay. The whole place was burned in 1418 by Charles VII and was called Azay-le-Brûlé (Azay the Burned) until the 18th century.

Ken poses on a bridge in the parc du château.

The people who live here are called Ridellois, recalling the name of the original lord-owner. In my opinion, the place is very pretty, but a bit too pretty. The town is touristy and expensive and the feel is more like Disneyland than a real place with a history.

Another view of le château d'Azay-le-Rideau.

Still In Amboise

The château and its grounds at Amboise are perched on a bluff overlooking the town and the Loire itself. If you pay the entry fee to meander through the castle, you won't be disappointed.

The Loire river seen from the château. What looks like the other river bank is actually an island in the middle of the river.

The main royal logis building is open to wander, although it's pretty much empty. What furnishings there are are sparse; you have to use your imagination to conjure up visions of the royal court in residence. But that's not too hard to do.

One of countless gargoyles that adorn the château's ramparts.

Outside, the grounds and gardens are meticulously tended and on a warm calm day, you can spend time strolling and taking in the views.

The silhouette of the Chapelle St.-Hubert, a gothic jewel.

There's also the gothic chapel of St.-Hubert, built right into the wall above the town. The remains of Leonardo da Vinci are presumed to be entombed under the chapel's transept. Da Vinci spent his final years in Amboise (you can visit his home there) in the service of King François I.

Amboise

Back to our Loire Valley trip in the year 2000. You'll remember that we were based in Vouvray. Very close by, back up the river a bit, is the town of Amboise which boasts a terrific château up on the heights.

The Château d'Amboise perched high about the Loire River.

It was in 1492, when Columbus set sail for the new world, that Charles VIII of France started construction to expand the original buildings on the site (where he spent his childhood) into the castle we see today (or what's left of it).

The bridge over the Loire at Amboise. In the center is a small island where there are houses, a hotel, and a few restaurants.

Along with garden terraces and the jewel of a chapel, la Chappelle St.-Hubert, the views from the castle and its grounds of the Loire River valley are spectacular.

Flags fly in the wind on the now grassy terrace of the château.

Of course, the town of Amboise itself is a great place to stroll, shop, and eat. On Fridays and Sundays, the town's outdoor riverside market is a feast of sights and smells. The Friday market is a scaled down version of Sunday's event. I say event because the Sunday market draws great crowds from all over the region and feels more like a fair than a market.

Inside the Chapelle St.-Hubert the sun filters through stained glass windows.

We now live about a half-hour's drive from Amboise and go over to the market every now and then. We have great markets closer to us but none are as large as the one in Amboise, nor are they in such an amazing setting. There are also a couple of stores we go to once in a while in and around Amboise including a LeClerc supermarket, a great garden center, a couple of ATAC supermarkets, and a produce store.

Amboise is a great place to spend a couple of days. I'll post some more images in the coming days.

Tarte Aux Noix

I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately. Before christmas, we found walnuts on sale at a local market and bought four one-kilo bags. Now, what to do with walnuts ? Actually, that's not a hard question at all.

My basic pâte brisée, blind-baked and ready to receive the filling.

I made a walnut pie, une tarte aux noix, which is a French classic. But I made it with a twist. Since Ken is from the south (of the USA, y'all), he grew up eating pecan pie. So I made a pecan pie with walnuts instead.

Ingredients assembled for the walnut pie.

First, of course, the crust is made and blind-baked. Then the ingredients are assembled. I cracked about 250 grams of walnuts the night before, so they were ready to go. The walnuts are toasted and cooled and lightly chopped.

The baked pie cools before serving.

Also included are three eggs, 250 ml of maple syrup (imported, of course), about a half cup of granulated sugar, a bit of salt, and four tablespoons of melted butter. Sorry about the mixed measurements; French recipes tend to use weight measures and American recipes use volume measures for dry ingredients. I was looking at French and American recipes for this pie.

A delectable slice of sweet, nutty goodness.

It all gets mixed together, with the nuts, then put into the hot pre-baked shell. Then into the oven until it's done. Serve it cooled or just warm (not hot). And, oh là là, y'all can bet it was some kinda bon !

Word Of The Week

gribouillage

As usual, I was watching a daily French talk show on tv and one of the guests was a woman named Claire Faÿ. She was hawking her new book entitled, "Cahier de gribouillages pour les adultes qui s'ennuient au bureau." Quite a long title for a book.

In the course of the panel discussion it quickly became clear to me what gribouillages are. The little book's title means Doodle Notebook For Adults Who Are Bored At Work. If you look closely at the book's cover, you can see it is published by the PaNaMa company.

Gribouillage is synonymous with gribouillis, both serving as the noun form for a scribble or a doodle. The verb form is gribouiller - have fun conjugating that one; the imperfect of the subjunctive in the first person plural is il a fallu que nous gribouillassions. And yes, I had to look that up.

A person who doodles or scribbles is a gribouilleur or gribouilleuse, while a gribouille is a hasty fool, rushing in where angels fear to tread. Be careful not to mix those up !

It never, ever occurred to me what the French word for "doodle" or "scribble" or "scrawl" might be. Now I know !

Kitchen Collection [7]

Yesterday's post was about making fresh pasta, so today's edition of Kitchen Collection will feature the pasta machine.


As I said, this manual model was a birthday present from Ken about five or six years ago (or was it longer ?). We remodeled our San Francisco kitchen and had installed a large granite-topped island. Perfect for making pie crusts and... pasta !

My first attempts were pretty feeble, but perfectly edible. Like with pie crust, practice gives you a better feel for what the dough should be like and how the machine behaves. Yesterday's dough was the best I think I've made. I suspect the reason is that I used the dough hook on the Kitchen Aid to knead the dough rather than doing it by hand. I believe the dough got a better kneading that way - I'm not so patient in the hand-kneading department and tend to stop too soon.

Also, I think that letting the dough rest in the fridge helped, too, just like I do when making a pie crust. At any rate, the dough rolled perfectly and cut easily. No sticking, no unevenness.

I read on some blogs and forums that people swear by motorized pasta machines. They say it frees up your other hand making it easier to manipulate the pasta sheets. Well, again, I say that practice reveals the best method, and I have no trouble getting into a groove with the hand-crank model. I'm really encouraged to make pasta more often !