Glimpses into the Past

Because we specialise in small groups (maximum 4 people) we can be flexible and take advantage of things that come our way when we are out with clients. If you are interested in traditional building techniques there is often a building undergoing repairs in one of the villages as we pass. It's easy for us to stop and take a look. Likewise, if you are a cyclist, we may cross the path of a cycle race, giving us the opportunity to join the locals and cheer the riders on. There are lots of instances like this when our clients have experienced life in a French village in a way that bigger tours never encounter.

A conical roof is repaired in a small village where we often take clients.

If you are interested in how the passage of history becomes part of the present in Touraine Loire Valley villages, email us and we will design a tour that takes you off the beaten track and into hidden corners. You never know what you might be lucky enough to see.

Market Shopping in the Touraine Loire Valley

One of the highlights of many people's visit to France is a visit with us to one of the best traditional produce markets in the Touraine Loire Valley. Fruit, vegetable and mushroom growers, fishmongers, butchers (some of them specialists in pork products or horse or even offal!), poulterers, apiarists, cheesemakers and bakers all have stalls to sell their locally grown produce. It's lively and full of locals, the stalls are laid out with appetising and tempting displays of fresh food.

People queue at the offal butcher's on the left, for vegetables grown just across the river on the right and chat with friends in the middle.

If you would like to soak up the atmosphere at a typical rural farmers' market in the Touraine Loire Valley email us and we will design a tour for you that includes a visit to Loches market (Wednesdays and Saturdays only).

Taste Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin, the famous French upside down apple tart, was created by a pair of sisters who ran an inn in the Sologne, the area around the Chateau of Cheverny. It was an instant hit with the diners and can now be found on menus all over France.

A baker turns out Tarte Tatin in the sun at a local market. His apprentice is making little deep fried garlic and parsley puffs (samples freely offered).

If you would like to sample Tarte Tatin or other local delicacies, email us and we will design a tour where we lunch at restaurants serving traditional food produced in the area and shop at markets like the one above.