Staying in Loches – some limited advice

The Château of Loches 

 

'My friends Julia and Quentin are going to stay in Loches in about a week and I wondered if you would be able to suggest some places for them to eat.  They are vegetarians but they do eat seafood.

Also as I know they appreciate a good bottle of wine, could you also recommend any vineyards and places that are worth a visit.'

A few days ago this request came through on an email. Although I do go to Loches from time to time mainly to go to the market – normally the Wednesday one but occasionally the Saturday one. 

Anyway here is my rather limited reply – would welcome comments and suggestions to make this post more comprehensive.  

The Indre and the Georges Sand 

with its terrace by the river

I hope you enjoy your stay in Loches.

Places to eat

I don't often eat in Loches mainly because it is some way from our place in Epeigné-les-Bois. Worth booking as Loches is a popular tourist destination.

I have had good meals at La Gerbe d'Or in the centre of Loches:

menu, carte | Restaurant la Gerbe d'Or à Loches (37)

menu, carte | Restaurant la Gerbe d'Or à Loches (37) menu du jour, gourmand, mélodie, menu enfants, accueil bébé, fait maison, produit, frais

There is also the Hotel Georges Sand, which is by the Indre with an attractive terrace overlooking the river. I haven't eaten here in years but it was a nice place to have lunch.

Accueil

Accueil Au coeur des châteaux de la Loire..., L’Hôtel-Restaurant George Sand associe charme et histoire, modernité et co...

The best place to eat in the region is La Promenade in Le Petit Pressigny, which is just under 30 kms south of Loches. You will need to book.

Restaurant la promen Site officiel du Restaurant La Promenade - Maison Dallais

There is also Le Clos aux Roses in Chedigny, an attractive village which is some 12 kms from Loches. I have eaten there but not since it changed hands but I have good reports from friends.  

Home - Le Clos Aux Roses

Home - Le Clos Aux Roses

Home - Le Clos Aux Roses A gastronomic hide-away in the heart of the Indrois valley

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings there is a large and very popular market that takes up the centre of Loches.

Vineyards and producers to visit:

There are no vineyards close to Loches. Those in the Cher Valley near Montrichard are the closest. You could try Vincent Roussely in Angé or Jean-François Mériau in Montrichard . There is also the Cave Co-operative in Bléré that makes reasonable wines.

Home - Domaine Merieau

Vouvray and Montlouis are a little further afield with a number of producers to visit including Jacky Blot, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups and François Chidaine, who has a shop in Montlouis – Le Caveau Insolite. In Vouvray Vincent Carême in Vernou is a good producer to visit.  

 

For other suggestions please see the right hand column of Jim's Loire. 

The Georges Sand and the Indre

La Géline de Touraine celebrates 100 years of official recognition

Géline de Touraine               

This weekend is the centenary of the official recognition of the Géline de Touraine – La Dame Noir. The Géline is a superior chicken of similar status as the more famous Poulet de Bresse. The Géline is quite small, takes some 120-130 days to grow to maturity as opposed to some 90 days for the more commercially popular breeds. 

'La géline de Touraine a cent ans ce weekend

Le 12 novembre 1913 était homologué le standard de la géline de Touraine. Son centenaire est fêté à Loches un siècle après, presque jour pour jour.' 

La Nouvelle République. Further details here.' 

The celebrations will take place in Loches and are organised by the UAGT (Union des amateurs de la Géline de Touraine et autres races de basse-cour Tourangelles. In addition to La Géline the UAGT also champions two other special Touraine species – L'Oie de Touraine (Touraine goose) and Le Lapin Gris de Touraine. Details of their history and characteristics can also be found on the UGAT site.     

Completely unaware of the Gélines coming centenary but having on a number of occasions enjoyed géline at Jacky Dallais' La Promenade (Le Petit Pressigny) we decided to cook a géline for a treat for our last weekend in Touraine this autumn before returning to London. We went to James Doiseau's excellent butcher's shop in Bléré and joined the customary queue – a fitting testimony to the excellence of his meat, poultry and charcuterie. 

We were served by James himself, who kindly suggested poaching the géline in a vegetable stock for 20 minutes before roasting it for around 60-70 minutes, while basting it with the vegetable stock. I followed his suggestion and it worked very well. The stock keeping the chicken moist, while having the advantage of concentrating the basting broth meaning that by the time the géline was cooked we had a suitably concentrated and flavoursome gravy. 

To accompany our géline, which has markedly dense flesh and gamy brown meat, we tried a well mature bottle of Corbières – a 1988 La Voulte Gasparets‎, which was a wonderful revelation as it had aged so well with delicate red and black fruits with a very fine, delicate balance that suggested it came from further north in France.  

Hotel du Coin: Esves-les-Moutier

A couple of photos of the long closed Hotel du Coin in the centre of the small commune of Esves-le-Moutier between Loches and Ligueil in the Indre-et-Loire départment. In the last census (2007) there were 196 people living in the commune.  

Loches-autrefois: collection of old photos of Loches

The station at Loches (just one of the post cards on Loches-autrefois)

A reminder of the website Loches-autrefois which now contains some 1800 photos and old post cards of Loches and the surrounding area. If you register you can view the whole collection and there is now the facility to add your own photos     

August sunshine@Loches

Quick visit to Loches market last Wednesday mainly to buy mussels. Market very busy and crowded but it remains one of the best in this part of Touraine.

Part of the château

Loches: Fête des Vins Nouveaux 18th November 2010

Organisée par les Bars-Brasseries et Métiers de Bouches de Loches et de Beaulieu-lès-Loches, avec la participation des Établissements Joumier et de la ville de Loches.

L’occasion de goûter les vins primeurs (Beaujolais, Touraine ou Muscadet) et déguster des spécialités locales (fromages de chèvre, fouées, rillons, etc.)

de 17h à 21h - Place de la Marne

**

Other dates celebrating the arrival of the new 2010 wines:

Les rendez-vous du Touraine Primeur 2010

Jeudi 18 novembre à Monts
17h00 - 21h00 : Marché gourmand au Château de Candé

Vendredi 19 novembre à Amboise
18h30 : « Amboise fête le Touraine Primeur » cortège - Place St Denis
19h30 : Vendanges nocturnes au pied du château - Village gastronomique jusqu’à 23h00

Vendredi 19 novembre à Onzain
17h00 à 22h00 : Place du Marché : Animations, expositions d’artisans

Samedi 20 novembre à Blois
8h00 - 18h00 : Animations, dégustation et vente au centre ville de Blois
9h00 – 19h00 : Espace commercial Quinière : village gourmand avec animations

Samedi 20 novembre à Montrichard
10h00 - 19h00 : vignerons et métiers de bouche aux Caves du Donjon (Aussi Dimanche 21)
12h00 : Restauration avec orchestre - Espace des saveurs tourangelles (Aussi Dimanche 21)
A partir de 15h00 : Parade et musique au centre ville
17h00 - 18h00 : Remise des prix et médailles aux lauréats du concours Touraine Primeur
20h00 : Dîner de Gala

Dimanche 21 novembre à Montrichard
7h30 : Randonnée pédestre à Montrichard
10h00 : Défilé des confréries, grand’messe à l’Eglise Ste Croix et intronisations
15h30 : Grande parade de Chars avec Miss AOC Touraine et défilé de vieilles voitures
Nouveauté 2010 ! : Exposition 1850 « Au temps de Balzac » et Attelage de chevaux
Manifestation parrainé par Romain Barras, champions d’Europe de décathlon 2010

Montrichard: traditional centre of Touraine Primeurs celebrations

Wineries not to be missed?

 

River Indre in Loches passing the George Sand hotel and restaurant

 A message received yesterday:

'Dear Jim,

I just stumbled across your blog about loire valley wines. My family and I will be traveling to Loire soon. Specifically, we are staying near Loches for a week. We love our wine but are by no means experts. I was wondering if you might give me some suggestions of wineries not to be missed. With so many options I am a bit overwhelmed. Any info you could pass on would be of great help however, please do not feel obligated to respond. I know you must get lots of questions like this. Thank you so much.'

**

Loches is a little way out from the Loire's main wine producing areas. For instance both Vouvray and Chinon are about an hour's drive away with Montlouis slightly closer at around 50 minutes. Closer are the two main producers of Touraine Noble Joué – Jean-Jacques Sard and Rousseau Frères in Esvres about half an hour away from Loches in the direction of Tours. Noble Joué is a little known but long established rosé made from three Pinots – Noir, Meunier and Gris. Of the two Rousseau is the larger concern with nearly 20 hectares of vines offering a range of other wines as well as Noble Joué. 

Also around 30 minutes away from Loches are the producers in the Cher Valley. People to visit would include Jean-François Mériau (Vignobles des Bois Vaudons) in Saint-Julien-de-Chédon and Vincent Ricard in Thésée.  

Going further afield then Jacky Blot's Domaine de la Taille aux Loups in Husseau (Montlouis) where you can buy his Vouvray and Bourgueil as well as Montlouis is certainly recommended as is the François Chidaine's La Cave Insolite in Montlouis. 

Across the river in Vouvray my choices include Domaine Huet, Champalou, Foreau, Bernard Fouquet (Domaine des Aubuisières) and Alexandre Monmousseau's Château Gaudrelle, whose tasting room and winery in now at the western end of Rochecorbon. 

If you decide to go to Chinon my choices would include Baudry-Dutour (tasting room in Cravant-les-Coteaux), Charles Joguet (Sazilly), Domaine de Noblaie (Jérôme Billard in Ligré) and Château de Coulaine (Etienne and Pascale Bonnaventure in Beaumont-en-Véron).

There are many other possibilities and much depends upon how far you want to drive and how many places you wish to visit. Mentioning them all would make for a very long post! 

Loches en Fête: 3rd to 5th April

Le Château de Loches

Loches en Fête» 3 au 5 avril 2010 :
Foire et savoir-faire en Touraine Côté Sud

C’est place de Verdun, dans un décor boisé, reflet de notre patrimoine forestier, avec un clin d’œil au Québec, que vous accueillent les participants de la 2ème édition de « Loches en Fête ».

Sous un espace couvert, les exposants des 4 Communautés de Communes formant le Pays Touraine Côté Sud proposent leur savoir-faire en matière d’habitat, d’énergies renouvelables, de construction, etc. Afin d’alimenter le pôle destiné à la filière bois, des échanges et rencontres entre public, professionnels et acteurs économiques du territoire sont organisées.

Un second pôle installé dans le carrefour, le « pôle bois », accueille l’allée des tourneurs sur bois, du débardage à cheval, un sculpteur sur bois et une démonstration de bois de chauffage.

Venez-vous restaurer au sein du village alimentaire et comme toujours vous amuser à la fête foraine jouxtant la place de Verdun.

Loches market

Vegetable stall in the centre of the market

The Wednesday morning market in Loches is always worth a visit if you are in the area. We would have gone to the Saturday edition last week but as it was pouring with rain it didn't appeal.

L'Ecremières: the excellent cheese stall

Street in the heart of the market

In the pink – the happy pig!

Reflections of the market in the Café du Balto windows

Café du Balto: time for a calm coffee while watching the bustling market

Wine shop: Les flaveurs de la Terre

Ligueil: old postcard site

A sister site to the Loches autrefois site has recently been launched: 

www.ligueil-d-antan.fr

 

Ligueil's main street (from the collection of Corine Giron)  

Vous l'aurez compris, il s'agit d'une collection sur Ligueil, petite commune fort agréable du Sud Touraine. C'est aussi et surtout la ville de Corine GIRON qui a choisi de vous présenter ainsi sa magnifique collection personnelle. Ses cartes sont remarquables et très rares pour la plupart !

Certains d'entre vous trouveront peut-être quelques similitudes entre Ligueil d'Antan et loches Autrefois... Et pour cause, leurs auteurs sont très intimement liés dans cette passion commune...

Loire: brief news round up inc AC Saumur Le Puy Notre Dame

The George Sand on the Indre, Loches

From the Val de Loire newsletter:

Touraine: 50% off hotel rooms:

Durant 6 week-ends, du 6 novembre au 13 décembre, 1000 chambres d’hôtel sont commercialisées à moins 50% !

Une excellente occasion de découvrir, pour un prix tout doux, le patrimoine du Val de Loire. Partez pour des balades le long de la Loire ou sur les coteaux des vignes, visitez les caves troglodytes des vignerons, savourez les spécialités gastronomiques de la région...

Profitez également de votre séjour en Touraine pour déguster le Touraine Primeur et participez aux festivités autour de sa sortie !

Among the hotels participating in this special offer are: Le Bon Laboureur (Chenonceaux), Château de Noizay (Vouvray), Château d'Artigny (Montbazon), Auberge de la Brenne (Neuillé-le-Lierre), Le George Sand (Loches) and Château de Pray (Amboise).

Renseignements et réservations (further information and reservations) sur le site http://www.plusdetouraine.com/

Related articles by Zemanta

• Grape escapes: 10 French vineyard stays (guardian.co.uk)

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Finally...AC Saumur Le Puy Notre Dame!
Although the INAO accepted AC Saumur le Puy Notre Dame on 14th June 2006, it took a further three years and more for the French Minister of Agriculture to find his pen to sign the décret, which was done on 14th October 2009. Apparently the reform of the agrément system held things up.

The new AC is for reds only and covers 17 communes roughly centred on Le Puy Notre Dame. These are: Brézé, Brossay, Cizay la Madelaine, Distré, Doué la Fontaine, Epieds, Le Puy Notre Dame, Les Ulmes, Le Vauldenay, Les Vergers sur Layon, Meigné, Montreuil Bellay, Berrie, Les Trois Moutiers, Pouancay, Saix and Saint Léger de Monbrillais. The new appellation stretches nearly 30 kilometres from Doué la Fontaine in the west to Les Trois Moutiers in the east.

23 producers from the 17 communes covered by the AC will be making 3000 hls of the 2009 vintage, which will bear the new appellation. The late Henri Aupy started the campaign to get the appellation in 1975. Under the rules the base yield is 50 hl/ha, which is 20% less than that permitted for straight AC Saumur, with a maximum tolerance to 56hl/ha. Weedkiller can be used in part of the vineyard but not across the whole area. The wine cannot be put on the market before 1st June following the vintage. The producers are hoping that the wine will be priced between 6-10€ a bottle. (See l'anjou agricole (22.10.09).

CRM picking@Le Puy Notre Dame: 3rd October 2009

I don't want to make a big thing of this but it cannot surely be mere coincidence that Jim's Loire and friends spent half a morning picking Chenin Blanc (yes I know the new appellation is for red wine) at Le Puy Notre Dame on Saturday 3rd October and just eleven days later the new décret became official.

Chenin Blanc 2009 vintage: Le Puy Notre Dame

Related articles:
l'anjou agricole (22.10.09)

Loches en Jazz and the Verneuil Dairy

Today, Saturday and Sunday there is free jazz in Loches – Loches en Jazz. First concert starts at 21.30 this evening. Details here.

Verneuil Dairy

Interesting article in this week’s edition of La Renaissance Lochoise (10th-16th June) on the 100 years of the Verneuil Dairy, a co-operative with 320 members. The dairy produces around 80,000 hls of milk a year – 152 farms supplying cows’ milk and 52 goats’ milk. Founded in 1909 Verneuil was the last co-operative dairy in the region to be set up, a year after one was established in Orbigny, now closed.

It was apparently the devastation caused by phylloxera in the late 19th century that caused the farmers to switch from vines to milk.

•••

Two bits of good news: sterling is recovering against the euro – today it's up at 1.175. A year ago that would have seemed awful but after 1.02€ at the end of December 2008 you now have a different perspective.


Meteo France's forecast for next week has miraculously improved since last night. Now only Monday is forecast to be wet with sunshine for the rest of the week – good for the flowering but still plenty of time to change for the worse!

Snippets of news from Loches

Château of Loches

(From la Renaissance Lochois: 1st-7th April)
Today and tomorrow: Conference about la Corroirie du Liget
Starting at 6.30 pm there is a conference in la sale du Moulin des Cordeliers in Loches about La Corroirie du Liget – ‘fief féeodal fortifié et monastère des frères chartreux’. La Corroirie can be visited for free on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. More details from Service Animation du Patrimoine de Loche: 02.47.59.48.21

•••

Les Macarons de Martine
On 17th March Martine and Mariano Gonzalez took over the shop in the Rue Picois that used to be called l’Enseigne. It is now called Les Macarons de Martine, naturally specialising in macaroons but also tarte tatin.
7, Rue Picois, 37600 Loches. Tel: 02.47.59.06.31

•••

L’Entracte
On 23rd March Julie and Damien Daunay took over running this restaurant in the Rue du Château. The Daunays previously ran L’Auberge des Chaumettes in Beaumont-Villages between Orbigny and Montrésor. The RL reports that are are offering ‘une cuisine de terroir, de grand-mère: simple and good quality’.

Closed Sunday night and Monday apart from the summer when it will be open every day from 15th June.
4, Rue Château, 37600 Loches. Tel: 02.47.94.05.70
www.lentracte.eu/

Loches – as it was

Fredy Richard, who lives in the town, has recently launched a site that features 1200 old postcards of Loches and its surrounding area. Most of them come from the turn of the 20th century and are classified by various categories. Fredy is still collecting and intends to add more cards in the future. Loches is a popular and bustling market town on the River Indre in southern Touraine. It is famous for its château and its donjon, where prisoners were incarerated in appalling conditions. Nowadays Loches has a very good market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

View of the station at Loches

One of the postcards from the site. The railway used to run from Tours to Châteauroux, where it connected with the main line from Paris, Limoges and Toulouse. The railway line from Tours still runs as far as Loches but most of the service to Tours is provided by an SNCF bus. No trains run beyond Loches

www.loches-autrefois.fr

(From a report in La Nouvelle Republique 30th December 2008)

A few images of Loches

The château: late December 2006

Steps up to old quarter: late December 2006

The River Indre and the Georges Sand restaurant
late December 2006

Loches market: late August 2008
Market days: Wednesday and Saturday am

Tasting Vouvray with a producer: late August 2008
Market days: Wednesday and Saturday am

Jacques Villeret, comedian, went to school here

Account of visit to Jacky and Joëlle Blot now complete (posted 8th November)