Sortie to Saumur

Tired of all the fine weather in eastern Touraine we headed off today to Saumur to see if we could find some rain and we were all too successful! The first spots of rain arrived while we were on the A85 autoroute just to the south of Tours and it gradually increased in intensity throughout the day. However, returning to Epeigné-les-Bois in the early evening it was virtually dry and clear that there had been little rain during the day.

Once past Tours we chose a leisurely and scenic route to Saumur – heading first to Rivarennes to take pictures of the Musée de la Poire Tapée. On the way we came across the Musée Maurice Dufresne in Marnay. The Musée boasts 3000 ancient machines 'unique au monde'. The many poplar trees around Marnay and Rivarennes were wonderfully fresh and green today.

Musée de la Poire Tapée

At this time of year La Musée de la Poire Tapée is only open in the afternoon but the people who run it kindly opened it up so that I could take some pictures. The museum is small and has a small collection of the tools needed to process the pears.

Notices about the musuem – opening times etc.

Picking basket and hook for pulling down branches

The oven – pears go in on Saturday and, depending upon the type and ripeness of the pears are taken out around Tuesday

There are lots of pear and apple orchards between Azay-le-Rideau and Marnay, especially on the higher ground. Most in full bloom today.

Poplars and the River Indre@Marnay

From Rivarennes we headed to Bréhémont and then along by the Loire to Saumur just in time for lunch at Le Pot de Lapin starting with a refreshing glass of pétillant rosé – Cab à Bulles from Dominique Joseph's Le Petit Saint Vincent in Varrains. We then moved on to an excellent bottle of Antoine Sanzay's 2005 Saumur-Champigny with good concentration of black fruits, softly textured but with enough acidity to stop it from being cloying. This is the straight domaine Saumur-Champigny and unsurprisingly Antoine, who is based in Varrains, has long sold out of this vintage. My entrée was one of my favourites – oeufs en meurette – and this was very good with a deliciously rich, red wine sauce.


Underlining the popularity of le Pot de Lapin with the local vigneron our fellow diners included Bernard Jacob (boss of Ackerman Rémy Pannier Loire), Patrick Vadé (Domaine de Saint-Vincent) and Yves Lambert (Domaine Saint-Just).

The wet weather arrived soon after we got back to Epeigné and has continued with some interruptions into Saturday night (11th April). Typical Easter weather – fine until everyone starts their holiday and then downhill from there!

Still to come – part 2 of the Saumur Sortie: tastings at Château de Villeneuve, Antoine Sanzay and Château de Chaintres.