France 2014: Souesmes Moulin d'en Bas B&B and Loire Valley

It was with great excitement and anticipation that we finally arrived at the Moulin d'en Bas Bed and Breakfast in Souesmes.  We were very much looking forward to reconnecting with our friends who had converted an old 17th Century watermill into a charming bed and breakfast establishment and farm.  But given that I have never felt comfortable around animals (not having any pets growing up), I was nervous about the prospect of spending two full days on a property that was home to six dogs, not to mention an assortment of geese, ducks, chickens, and a donkey.  Luckily these were six of the most mild mannered and well behaved dogs that I'd ever encountered and I quickly felt at ease with them and fell in love with their cute little faces.

The Moulin d'en Bas had two guest bedrooms in the main house as well as a former boulangerie or bakery, that had been converted into a separate loft-style guest house.  We were given the boulangerie to stay in and it was great having our own private little house that included a sitting area and 3-piece bathroom.  In the mornings, we would go to the main house for hearty breakfasts with freshly baked croissants, scrambled eggs, fruit, cereal, coffee and juice.  Along the way, we were often greeted by the curious geese who were out for their morning stroll.

Our friends owned a vintage 1970's Citroën 2CV, a French vehicle that was originally designed as inexpensive transportation for farmers.  It had a tiny windshield, windows that manually flipped up, rectangular headlights, a soft convertible top that rolled into a cylinder, and a bench seat in the back with no seat belt.

We spent a fun couple of days touring the Loire Valley in the 2CV with the sunroof open. The Citroën 2CV is a beloved French national icon, so pedestrians constantly waved and other vehicles honked as we passed by.  When we honked back in friendly response, the little "beep beep" from the horn resembled the sound that the cartoon Roadrunner made.  We were amazed at how familiar our friend was with the little county roads, as he went bombing around the Loire Valley, at times traveling over 70km/hr, which was quite fast for this type of car.  We covered quite a distance in the two half-day trips that we took and passed by many little towns and villages.

We visited Sancerre, a medieval hilltop town overlooking the Loire River, which is known for its Sancerre wine, primarily made with Sauvignon blanc grapes.  We stopped off at a Max Vauche Chocolaterie near Bracieux, where they made gourmet chocolate treats in fancy shapes. We found a chocolate version of the Citroën 2CV to give to our friends.

It was difficult to go into a Picard shop, like the one we visited near Bourges, without getting "frozen-food-envy".  This chain of frozen food specialty stores carried high-end, unique frozen foods that made me wish there was some way to transport a suitcase-full to take home with us.  Imagine an entire freezer full of different types of exotic mushrooms, or bags of frozen vegetables specially put together for making soups, ratatouille or a couscous casserole.  There were several freezers full of sauces that included coconut curry, seafood, peppercorn, tikka masala, 3 cheese (gorgonzola, provolone and grana padano), bolognaise and multiple types of mushroom sauce.

Frozen hors d'oeuvres  included vegetable crumbles, individual scalloped potato portions, asparagus tarts, duck fois gras tarts and smoked salmon wrapped cream cheese paté.  Some of the boxed meals included guinea fowl supreme stuffed with prunes and pistachios, and duck breast with mashed purple potato and hazelnut sauce with mushrooms.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about this again.  If we had frozen foods like this back home in Toronto, we might never need to cook again!  How can I start a petition to get Picard to open up stores here?!?

There are over 70 historic sites, churches, chateaus and castles along the Loire River.  In our whirlwind tour, we were able to spot several of them as we drove by, including the breathtaking Château de Chambord, built in the early 1500s by King Frances I.  Like many of the other chateaus in this area, Chambord served as a hunting lodge and is one of the largest in the Loire Valley.

There was only enough time for us to visit one castle. We picked the Château de Chaumont-Sur-Loire, first built in the 10th Century by the Count of Blois, and continually rebuilt, renovated or added to through the centuries, all the way up to 1900.  In the 1500s, the chateau was used as a hunting lodge by Catherine de Medici.  When I first saw the castle from afar, it seemed like something out of a fairy tale. The multiple round turrets reminded me of Cinderella's castle in Disneyland.  The chateau was situated overlooking the Loire River, with beautiful views of the river visible from the tower windows.

The historic apartments contained furniture, tapestries and art from the 15th to 19th centuries.  The overall decor was much less ostentatious and more modest than larger French palaces like Versailles or Fontainebleau.  We were particularly intrigued by the "courting chairs" that modestly separated a lady from her suitor, including the 3-seated chair which presumably had a spot for the chaperone.

The castle had multiple temporary art exhibitions on display. The artist known only by his Christian name, Sarkis, placed stained glass depicting contemporary scenes in front of windows in storage rooms, juxtapositioning the modern images against ancient furniture, rugs, chandeliers and other objects.

South Korean artist Bae Bien-U's black and white landscape photography featuring backlit pine trees in the misty dawn were eerie and mystical.  In Korea, pine trees symbolize longevity and are believed to represent the links between Heaven and Earth.  Throughout the chateau, the leaded glass windows that revealed views of the castle, grounds, or the Loire River, were so pretty that they seemed like artworks in their own right.

The grounds and parks surrounding the castle contained beautifully landscaped gardens with colourful flowers and a variety of plants.  The entire area, called Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, is home to giant hundred-year-old cedar trees, planted in the 19th Century by the Count of Ararnon.  This park land was designed to resemble the English countryside, with gentle hills and lawns with curvilinear paths.

Each year since 1992, the gardens of Chaumont-sur-Loire play host to an International Garden Festival, created by different international landscape architects, designers and artists around an annual theme.  This year, the theme was "Gardens of Deadly Sins".  Each exhibit represented some aspect of sin, such as extravagance/greed, sloth, lust, envy, wrath, pride, or rage.  Reading the descriptions of the intent of each garden, we found the links to the theme of "deadly sin" to be tenuous at best.  Regardless, the floral displays were beautiful and a few of them made you feel like you were in the middle of Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter tea party.

The exhibits that most successfully captured the essence of the "Deadly Sins" theme were the one with the golden apple (representing the original sin?) and the reflecting pool that represented narcissism.  We couldn't capture it in the photo, but it was cool how the reflection of the chateau could be seen in the pool.

We had lunch in the outdoor patio of the restaurant attached to the gardens and enjoyed a lovely 3-course meal that included a salad, pasta and sorbet for dessert.  The meal felt more Italian than French but it was nice and refreshing on a hot sunny day.

What a wonderful visit we had with our friends at the Moulin d'en Bas Bed and Breakfast, in the heart of the Loire Valley.  Both their property and the surrounding areas were beautiful.  There was so much to see and we had barely scratched the surface. I wish that we had more time to follow along the Loire River, explore the little villages and visit more castles and chateaus.  Maybe this area will be the focus for a future trip to France.