Paris Day 5

Day 5 in Paris was one of my favorite days.  We took a full day wine tour around the Loire Valley, specifically the regions of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume

Our tour guide picked us up at 7:45 at our hotel and drove us and one other couple about an hour to the Loire Valley.  We stopped along the way for a breakfast of french pastries and coffee.  Our first stop once we got there was to this charming little farm.

The first thing we saw were these little cuties.

Then we walked into the factory and got a tour from the owner of the farm and learned how they take the milk from the goats and make cheese.

We learned about the aging process of the cheese.  Then they took around 8 different cheeses from different stages in the aging process and cut then into generous pieces for us to sample.

I think the first one was about a week old and it was really soft, almost cottage cheese like.  They got harder and moldier as we went down the row. The last one was really hard and had almost a horseradish taste to it that left my tongue feeling numb.  After the samples we got to shop around in their shop.

Finally we said goodbyes to the goats and went on our way.

Our next stop was a vineyard in the Pouilly-Fume region.

The "wine grower" as they are called, is a 10th generation owner of this vineyard.  She personally gave us a tour of the facility since she spoke pretty fluent English.

Then we got to sample and purchase their wine.

Then we continued through the wine country.

And stopped in a quaint little town for lunch.  After a delicious lunch we went to the Sancerre region and got to go through a museum.  We walked through the museum and then the had just go out on the patio for another wine tasting.

Then they gave us a little time to walk through the town of Sancerre.

We all met back up and drove down the hill to visit with another wine grower.  This one was also a family business.

One of the owners gave us a tour of the facility with the help of our tour guide as a translator.  He let us try the wine straight from the vats.  The first few were not ready yet in their aging process, but they weren't bad.  I thought we were just going to try a few so I drank all that was in my glass each time.  Then he kept going and let us try almost all of them.

Then he took us into a small room with the vintage wine that is kept in oak barrels.  Most of the wine is not kept in oak barrels in France because they pride themselves on the flavor that the rocks in the soil give the wine.  They want to keep it pure so it doesn't absorb the flavors in the wood.

We went back into the show room and they let us try a few more wines before we decided which ones to buy.

Here we are with the wine grower.

That was our last stop on the tour.  We all loaded back into the van made our way back to Paris.  The guide dropped us back off at our hotel where we regrouped before heading out for a nice dinner.

We had a very French dinner with more wine, escargot, duck, steak, and of course french fries.  We got back to the hotel late, packed up our bags knowing it was going to be another early morning, and said our goodbyes to Bethany.  We had a taxi come and pick us up at 5:30am to take all of us minus Bethany to the airport.  Bethany is staying in Paris for the rest of the summer to work in the office for Fat Tire Bike Tours.  We are now all back in the states living vicariously though her :)