22 April 2010
AMBOISE IN PICTURES
19 April 2010
A DAY IN AMBOISE


When we got to Amboise it was a different matter. There was also a street market in full swing and the place was heaving with tourists. We have little patience these days for queuing for parking places so did a quick tour of the car parks and then gave up and parked well away from the town centre in a residential area. A very nice area, too. Unfortunately as it was a good 15-minute walk back into town and that rather scuppered our wine-buying prospects.

The routine was the same as we have encountered before at similar events. There was no entry fee but you buy a tasting glass. 5€ for two this time. They are usually engraved with the details of the event and you keep them afterwards. Then you wander freely from stall to stall tasting whatever you please.
Most of the producers were from a village called Limeray just a few kilometres east of Amboise. Nick did most of the tasting as I had volunteered to drive. The wines were varied and we liked a lot of them. We got chatting to one producer who was very friendly and whose wines we really liked. We said that as we had had to park a long way away we could not really buy any wine today as we couldn't carry it. Other visitors were leaving the fair with boxes or bags containing bottles of wine. Some had trolleys full of boxes taken out to their car which they had somehow manage to shoe-horn into a space outside one of the entrances.
The lady gave us directions and a card with a map on it. Then she did a sort of shifty look over each shoulder, reached under the counter and handed us a leaflet. A quick glance at the price list told us that the prices at the vineyard were about a third cheaper than at the fair. We promised to pay her a visit when we were next in France and we will, too.
16 April 2010
THE OLDEN DAYS
This is what was left behind when the house was knocked down.
I told Mme André about the postcard and she surprised me by saying she knew all about the house because she was born in the village before it was demolished. I thought that she had said she came to the village in 1956. I suppose that what she meant was that she moved into her cottage that year. That means that she should be able to tell us a lot about the village in the 20th century, if only we can ask the right questions.
Someone told us recently that our little house could have been built in the 1500's. Now that really is a long time ago and I would love to learn more about what has happened to the house and the village over the years and the centuries. Also what life was like in Le Grand Pressigny in the "olden days".