France Day 4 Tours
Today continued with great experiences, in a more relaxed environment. In some respects the area we are staying feels similar to the Hudson Valley, but with more character otherwise known as the Loire Valley. The morning began with a nice breakfast buffet, which featured a pate made of pork from the region. We then made our way to Tours for Mass at 11 a.m. at the tomb of St. Martin de Tours, one of Frances great patrons. For me personally this was a big one. This was the final stop of my holy card pilgrimage, and St. Martin for me personally I saw as a patron of veterans and soldiers, since he was one at the time of his encounter with Jesus sometime in the 4th century.
After liturgy we had an surprisingly amazing experience shopping in Tours. We found some great regional items, and gifts but had to wrap it up to get to what we came for…..wine. The Loire Valley is known for its Vouvray, Chenin Blanc, Malbec, and Cot varietals. We chose this region due to being close to Paris and our limited time on this trip. Everything was in a tight radius that was less than 3 hours in all directions. We managed to squeeze in 4 wine visits, each one having its own uniqueness and kind people, the highlight though came at Domaine Huet. The owners are from Watchung, N.J. created an immediate connection for me. The “riddler” who is a traditional care taker of the wine, showed us around the premises after an amazing wine tasting and conversation. We journeyed to the wine cave where he shared his goal as a local is to turn 11,000 bottles of wine and live to 95. He also showed us an area in this wine cave where locals gathered to dance to music during German Nazi occupation. It was truly a moment of nostalgia.
To finish the night we went into the town of Amboise and had a great meal at a restaurant owned and operated by a woman who did everything herself, yet still provided a great experience. Ma Petite Fouee caught our attention due to it’s great rating, but we almost overlooked it. Thanks to one place that said we needed a reservation and to come back in an hour, along with other poorly rated places, we finally found this gem on the second floor of a dark street that every business was closed. For only 20 euros, we had a unique meal that had 4 courses, and was all you could eat, if you were actually still hungry. In addition you felt like you were in her home and it came with wine. Yes only 20 euros, we ate 2 appetizers, a main course, dessert, while enjoying 2 different wines with our meals. At this point we were ready to call it a night with everything we consumed for the day.
