lollardfish

Yesterday afternoon, we saw a castle on a hill, an ancient burial site, and ate fouee in a cave. Fouee are little pockets of bread that you can fill with rilette (shredded meat cooked in its own fat for a long time), beans, salad, chevre, and otherwise good things. All these were wonderful, and the girl and I tried not to be annoying and to look at the sparkle on her finger.

For pictures of all this, see: here.

Today was really neat.

We went to the local market in Azay-le-rideau to pick up two pigeons from the butcher lady. She is, as advertised, both very jovial and quite butch. We also met the veggie lady, and other usual folks at the local market. It's not a great market in compared to the bigger city, but has everything one might want - just not multiple choices of venders. We went home, packed a picnic, and went off for a day in the keys of pigeon, Vouvray, and cheese.

As we drove through Vouvray (an area, not a town), admiring the cave houses and looking for known-vitners (that B. liked), we saw a sign "foire de vins Vouvray." Says me, "What does 'foire' mean?" My academic French is solid, my spoken French lousy, and I didn't know the world. It turns out it means ... "fair" ... and following that sign resulted in spending 3 euro for a glass, and tasting wines from 21 producers, accompanied by several cheese, meat, and bread makers. We each bought only two bottles (special and affordable things, as opposed to easily purchased stuff in the USA). Sweet Vouvray is delicious on its own. Dry Vouvray is a great food wine. And being able to taste so much from so many different makers gave me a real sense of the varieties of the grape. A delightful chance event that worked out perfectly.

More driving, another picnic (with pigeon pate), and we arrived at Amboise. Amboise features a GIANT fiftheenth-century and later castle, and it happens to be where Leonardo Da Vinci retired later in life. His big house, allegedly with a secret tunnel connecting to the castle, is just down the hill. What can one say about another spectacular chateau, other than that it was really neat to see, but I've nothing new to write about chateaus today (since today is the day I catch up on LJ). Besides, the best part of the day was to come.

On Thursday, the operators of Les Fromages des Moulins invited us to drop by Saturday afternoon. We called, then found the place, and were greeted by young Rodolphe and the family dog, Raymond. So here's the gist: Shannon will be able to purchase cheese directly from them for her new store, which will be good for all of us who like cheese. The details are even better. The grandmother, now deceased, owned goats and made cheese. Her son, Etienne, went to work as the cheese purchaser for some massive national company, hated it, quit, and went back to the Loire to become an affeneur - or the guy who makes the cheese better. Now his son is continuing the business along with him, the mother does the books, and the daughter works the shop in Tours.

When you have a cheese, one can eat it, or age it. If one ages it, the right conditions, treatment (washing the rind with various sorts of liquids, for example), and time can vastly alter the flavor and transform the final product. That's the job of an affeneur. The Moulin family buys their cheese from local producers, makes it better, and sells it. We got a tour of every room (pictures no doubt coming soon), got to know the son (Rodolphe) a little, sat around in their living room and had drinks (cokes, water, beer), and chatted about cheese. I can't wait to eat the proceeds from today's work.

Dinner: Pigeon, a potato-reblochon gratin, salad, ratatouille, dried pear soaked in wine, and other goodness.