Saturday, 14 May 2016

Une connexion avec Nouvelle Zelande et un surprise/A NZ connection and a surprise


Dany's place is almost on the corner
Over breakfast we talked to Dany about her life and what had brought her to Sancerre.  It was not totally clear but she told us she had been in the hotel business but gave it up because of health issues.  She was in the process of doing up her home and had put in central heating and double glazing, both at some expense she said.  There was much more to do as it really did feel old and in need of maintenance. 

Sancerre on the hill - light was not good
One of the reasons for our trip to Sancerre was a desire to visit the home of Henri Bourgeois who had a New Zealand connection as he had set up a winery called Clos Henri in Marlborough.  In my view the New Zealand Clos Henri wines are great so I wanted to try his French wines.  He is clearly a big producer in Sancerre and is based in a small village called Chavignol which is seven kilometres from Sancerre.  It is obviously a wealthy area judging by the main road going through it and the houses. 

Henri Bourgeois tasting and admin centre
Henri Bourgeois is situated next to a church. This makes sense of the tasting room they have in Marlborough which is a deconsecrated church in an amazing setting.  I had thought we would not be able to do a tasting but it turned out we could and ended up sampling a range of his wines.   They are so different to his NZ wines but are also very good.  The prices for his French wines however are comparatively expensive to the NZ wines.  According to the person serving us, about 20% of the wine sold is the Clos Henri wines from NZ.  While we were there we saw people buying whole cases of wine.  I am not surprised because unlike NZ the wine at the shop was about 15% cheaper than in the shops.

I got a bit of surprise when I put our Saumur address into the GPS as it turned out to   be much further away from Sancerre than I thought.  The shortest route was 240kms and on the back roads it was a four hour journey.  On the autoroute it was nearly three hours but the distance was a bit longer.

We took the back road route simply because it was more fun.  Soon after we left Chavignol it began to spit and then it rained.  Some weird routes were suggested by Michelle (the GPS) and again I sometimes ignored her.  Regardless it was an interesting experience doing those routes.  There were surprisingly few cars on them. 

When we got past Tours we decided we had had enough of back roads and after a stop at a rest area or Aire we took the autoroute which got us to Saumur in no time at all.

We easily found the apartment but parking was not so easy as the streets were very narrow with limited parking.  However, we were able to find a place temporarily. 

We had a lovely surprise when we entered the apartment. It was everything that was described on the internet and more – a separate dining and lounge, a large bedroom and a bathroom that makes my one look tiny.  It even had a well equipped kitchen.  We were delighted with it and could happily stay here for quite a while.  Colin and Myriam (our hosts) came around later in the evening to introduce themselves and they were a really delightful couple. He is English and she is Chilean.  Both are fluent in French but we spoke in English and it was funny to find him sometimes grasping for an English word after living here for so long.


Self explanatory

Chavignol vineyards

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