Day 75: Chenehutte-Treves- Cunault to Villandry

April 21, 2024

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We had been concerned that we would be chilly when trying to ride in February, but in Spain - that worked out fine. And we were confident that France would be ok, because after all, it would be April. So it was surprising when Dodie reporting this morning that there was ice on the bikes! That was our cue to put on whatever warm stuff we had. For me, fortunately that includes a down sweater, not to mention handwarmer sachets. We started out at zero degrees, and the day never warmed beyond thirteen. Dodie was really chilly. She is scouring her stuff right now for any more clothes she can find,

Our stay in Launay had been really restful, with the kind of rural dead silence that we are used to from home. Despite the chill, the surroundings as we set off were also very pleasant.

Although technically we were in "Launay" last night, we were not sure that that was really a town name (still not sure), so we used the place name Booking had supplied: Chenehutte les Tuffeaux. This triggered an objection from Michel, who pointed out that the place is actually Chenehutte-Treves-Cunault. Yes, it's true. According to Wikipedia Chenehutte les Tuffeaux resulted from the merger of Chenehutte and les Tuffeaux in 1794. But in 1973 it was merged with Treves-Cunault, resulting in Chenehutte-Treves- Cunault. So ok, Michel, it's fixed now, and the blog conforms to "current" events! Dodie often says I live in the past, but not this time!

Second from left: 24194 Mediterranean Gull - breeding plumage

We continued through beautiful pastoral scenes, and soon arrived in Saumur.

We landed at Saumur, at what was probably a main street. I had a recollection of getting lost in Saumur one time and having been led out of town by a road angel local. This time we had no problem at all, and in fact we found La Mie Caline, just on the right out of the photo, which made us feel really at home.

We didn't try to see the city, but only grabbed an impression on the way through. It looked rather nice to us!

Our way passed the St Pierre church, where we were surprised to see many people flooding in for what would be a Sunday service. Among these was a group of cyclists, that we had seen yesterday outside Angers. I recognized them from the sort of sceptre one was carrying. I went over and asked them about it. They were Scouts, on an overnight trip out of Angers.

Near the church there was this one "fachwerk" house. Keith Klein has recalled that the French word for this style is "colombage".

Old colombage near St Pierre church in Saumur

and looked back to one roofscape in the town

Plus this shiny standard, which was somewhere on the chateau roof.

Now we got a hint of what was to come, making up really the chief interest in the day, in the form of "troglodyte" caves in the tuffeau cliffs.

Most of the houses here, and in fact all the way to Paris, use tuffeau carved from cliffs like those above for construction.

We came to a church under renovation, and I thought this rather ho hum.

But there were many info panels scattered on the grounds, describing the history of the place and the details of the restoration. So we actually soent some time reading and trying to absorb this stuff.

Here you might b able to read a little bit too.

The Pieta discovered in the field:

A tuffeau building of pleasing proportions, beside the Chapel.

Out along the river now, a lot of signage alerted us to the two types of Terns (french: Sterne) nesting on the sandbars below. It made Dodie wild to find that we could not spot any.

One last look back, and a pretty nice shot, I think, of the Chateau.

We passed innocently along the riverside, beside an island, and through nice forest - not a managed one this time, until we came to something we knew about, but had not appreciated the extent of before. That is the tuffeau cliff side - troglodyte ride, through Turquant and to Candes - St Martin, where the Vienne river joins the Loire. These 20 km or so offer many views of homes and facilities built into the cliffside, beautiful houses, buildings, and churches made of the tuffeau, troglodyte restaurants, and places adopted by all sorts of crafters and artisans.

An island in the river is close by the shore.

Here we head up into the troglo-tuffeau, toward a wine producer at the top.

and out to the vines on top of the ridge.

There are many small churches along the way.

Among the artisans and restaurants burrowed into the ridge, was something that caught our attention and that we really enjoyed. This was a re-boot of an activity that had started in the 1860's. In 1863 the Grape Phylloxera, an insect pest, was introduced from North America, and wiped out the wine industry here. To stay afloat, farmers moved to apples, and developed a way to dehydrate them for better storage, and sales to sailors. The method involved putting whole apples in large tuffeau ovens at low heat for a span of days. Periodically the apples would be taken out and tapped flat with a hammer, resulting eventually with a dried apple disk. These "tapped apples" apparently were a big success.

The apple tapping business died out at the turn of the century (1900), but around 1980 was revived by one guy here, who restarted production, sill in the tuffeau. Today we find tapped apples on sale here , together with a rather well done museum of the former industry - set out in large rooms hollowed from the tuffeau.

We thought the museum was great, and spent a fair amount of time there. It's time we slightly regretted, when we realized just how far Villandry was going to be. But we still thought it was worth it. I took a lot of photos of the displays in the caves, but unfortunately many (most) are too dark. I could restore them, but time is limited as I type this, so there are just some representative ones.

A large display cave, showing ovens and wood cart

A few of the apple peelers that were in use. The apples were peeled, but not sliced.

The wicker baskets were soaked in the Loire to have them very moist, such that they would not burn up in the drying oven.

A basket of apples ready to start the process (would actually have to be peeled first).

In later years, an "American" system was adopted, in which apples were put into a large oven on large trolley- racks that can be seen in the photo.

This was a display about how tuffeau is cut. The method is to pick holes around the intended block, to hammer wooden wedges into the holes and then to make these wet. The expanding wood pops out the block, which can them be sawed.

Another side display discussed the extensive trade along the river. Three types of boats were used. One, the Toue Cabanee, was described by Michel as such from a photo we took the other day, on the river.

There was also a quite excellent film about the tuffeau, the caves, the apples, etc. Below are two random snaps I took during the film.

Back out on the trail, we really were into a beautiful ride, among tuffeau buildings and with troglo things to look at along the ridge.

At the tapping museum we had been given tasters of the apples. Here at a restaurant, you can buy them a la carte.

A lot of ravens live here, but had just flown away for this shot.

More scenes of tuffeau buildings

The magical stretch Saumur to Candes St Martin can be seen on this map.

We ran into a couple from Yorkshire, cycling out from their motorhome, perhaps doing 30 km for the day. The man, Les, turned out to be 86, and his wife a little younger. We agreed that the secret to continued good health is to keep up activities like this.

Sometimes people just hit it off, and the lady must have decided that Dodie was a good sort. She dug around in her pack and produced a very fragrant lavender sachet that she had sewn, and made it a gift to Dodie.

We continued toward the end of the magical stretch, passing through Montsoreau to Candes St. Martin.

Saint Martin travelled all around Europe, but Tours seems to be Saint Martin HQ. We'll be there!

A depiction of the famous Saint Martin story, in which as a Roman soldier, he shares his cloak with a poor man.

Beyond Candes Saint Martin we both realized that we still had a long way to go, and the way became a quite nice road, but with nothing much on it, and a chilling head wind. We mostly just booted it, hoping to reach the hotel before 6. There were some birds and horse along the way, though.

There are a lot of "equestrian centres" in this region.

Can't think of any other way to caption this photo: Two Great Tits

Finally, in the distance we saw the Villandry chateau.

The Cheval Rouge is right next to the entry of the gorgeous Villandry chateau, but a visit there is not in the cards this time.

We are not big on restaurant meals, but after the long cold ride we decided to pass up the sandwiches and salad we had brought, and to dine at the hotel. The beef fillet was the choice I really wanted, but I have gambled and lost too many times, with it always coming from the kitchen raw, by my standards. I decided to gamble again, this time using a magic word given to me by Michel: carbonizé - i.e burnt to a crisp. This time it worked, and the steak came out just right. Flush with success, I tried to negotiate a full sized filter coffee. I came close - a small espresso with a pot of boiling water on the side. Not bad, we call that an Americano back home.

Better than a sandwich, when you are chilled!

Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 3,668 km (2,278 miles)

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Scott AndersonVillandry! You’ll be in Paris in no time, if you don’t freeze first.
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4 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonWe are obsessively checking the weather forecast, and the best we can say is "At least there is no rain being predicted". Brrrrrr.
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4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThere must be a real cold snap going around. I was startled to look at the weather report this morning and see that we have a few days with near freezing overnight temps and the chance of snow coming up. It turns out we’re going through the mountains at the wrong time!
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4 months ago