We dropped our bikes off in Tours and picked up a rental car for the next few days so that we could see some of the quieter and smaller villages of the Loire. We took the back roads home to Saumur (slower but prettier and I wasn’t keen to brave the motorways on my first drive on the wrong side of the road in over a year). For dinner we decided we deserved an indulgent meal so we headed back to Le Pot au Lapin. Dan had a steak with the best fries, I had salmon and we shared a bottle of local red. If there ever was a day to have dessert, it’s one where you’ve ridden 80km so we didn’t hesitate to order creme brûlée and panna cotta.
The next morning we had coffee and breakfast at home, packed up our car and headed off. Our destination for the next few days was the gorgeous La Jagée (more on that in a moment) but we wanted to make the most of having a car so we again opted for the back roads and headed to Chinon. The drive through vineyards and tiny villages was beautiful, particularly as we were hitting peak fall. Chinon was lovely too. We enjoyed walking around the medieval town before picking up some a few things from an unfussy and delicious local bakery and sitting down to lunch. Lunch was fine but obviously not memorable as I have absolutely no recollection of what we ate. But sometimes a mediocre meal that keeps body and soul together is all you need – the pressure to make every meal of your travels an outstanding one is so overwhelming!
After lunch we set off on the short drive to La Jagée, one of the stops we were most excited about. La Jagée is owned by Kerri and Kerry, the parents of one of my friends back in Sydney (hi Ash!). They’ve spent the last year turning the 17th century manor (perhaps the hunting lodge for the local château) into a beautiful and relaxing getaway in the Loire. Our king size bed was a dream (ha). After over two months on the go, we enjoyed staying in such a comfortable, warm place and Kerri and Kerry couldn’t have been better hosts. They were so generous, inviting us to eat with them for both nights of our stay and giving us great tips on what to see in the area. They are both fantastic cooks and we ate and drank so well (it was also so nice to have company as we’d been travelling solo since Shanghai!).
On Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, including muesli (which I was so excited to see after a couple of months without it!) and incredibly creamy local milk (heaven after the uht that is everywhere in Europe) and some of the best croissants we ate in France. After a pretty slow start we made our way to the local castle, Le Château d’Azay-le-Rideau. It’s smaller in scale than Le Château de Villandry but no less lovely. Both the building and the grounds were beautiful and I loved getting to peak into a very old school kitchen. We stepped just outside the castle grounds for lunch at Restaurant Côté Cour, recommended to us by Kerri and Kerry. We’ve loved the set lunch menus that we’ve encountered in France. For 15-20 euros, you get at least two courses. It’s generally a pretty simple and quick affair but always satisfying and it’s so great to see what feels like the entire country pause for a proper lunch. Lunch at Côté Cour turned out to be one of the best lunches of our time in France, with lovely service, beautiful fresh food and such a light and modern space.
Wanting to squeeze as much as possible into our stay, after lunch we stopped at Le Sot de l’Ange to try some natural wines. We ended up taking half a dozen bottles home with us. It was a few more bottles than was sensible given that we had to get them to Paris on the train but it was worth the hassle as the wines were delicious. Over a month since we left the Loire and nearing the end of our travels now and we have one last bottle to share this weekend!
After stopping at the winery, we had the stamina for one more stop so we made our way to Le Château de Saché to visit the Musée Balzac. Not having read any of Balzac’s works, some of the museum’s exhibits were lost on us but we did enjoy the lovely home and the beautiful gardens. We crammed quite a bit into our day so from the museum we headed home to rest before dinner and make more travel plans (including a pretty last minute decision to cancel our Italy trip and head for London instead!).
On Friday night we sat down to another fantastic dinner cooked by Kerri and Kerry, including delicious local wines, huge bowls of mussels (just coming into season!) and an incredible dessert of tiny sweet strawberries, fresh cream and meringue. We stayed up much later than we usually do chatting with our hosts and so we slept in on Saturday morning. After finally mustering the energy to get up, we had another delicious breakfast of croissants, baguettes and butter, and muesli. After packing up the car and saying a reluctant goodbye to La Jagée and the Loire, we made our way to Tours to drop off our rental car and hop on the train to Paris. We had a very squishy and sweaty train ride as the train was so crowded and we were lugging our backpacks and that box of wine but we made it to our Paris Airbnb in one piece by early evening, excited to hang out in one of our favourite cities.