Trees for Notre-Dame from the Loire Valley

 Like all over France, owners of forests and sawmills in Indre et Loire (the Touraine Loire Valley) have mobilised, donating more than sixty trees for the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame de Paris roof carpentry. The trees, all between 150 and nearly 300 years old, will primarily come from forests at Amboise and Loches, but also Sainte Maure de Touraine and Orbigny. If you tour with us you will drive through some of these forests and learn how they are managed to provide such important timbers. The project to restore the Cathedral is a huge learning experience, and we would like you to be a part of that aspect of it by passing on our knowledge of heritage conservation practices.

Felling trees for the restoration of Notre Dame. Photo courtesy of Alain Biard

To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website.

French Bread

Bread - the one absolute staple of French cuisine.

The modern steam injected stone based oven in one of the bakeries in our village. The water bottle is for adding water into an external inlet to periodically top up the steam reservoir.

 

Like most things French, bread is not just a simple matter of water, flour, yeast, and common salt - although by law these are the only ingredients allowed in the item labelled "pain". If you want to find out just what makes French bread so special, let us know when you book your tour with us.

One of our local bakers at work.

A typical boule, cut.

Boule.

 

A long loaf made for a food and art festival (L'Art et Lard) in the next village to where I live. Customers buy chunks of the loaf which is priced by weight.

 

 

Traditional breads on display.

This parking sign indicates that parking is not allowed, but stopping for 10 minutes will be tolerated. You only ever see these signs outside bakeries and pharmacies.

 

A glimpse into the back of a bakery near Blois.

Organic sourdough bread at the market in my village in the Loire Valley.

To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website.

Wattle for Women

As Australians we love to see the wattle bloom in February and March in France. But we were shocked to discover how few people here know that wattle is Australian. The locals call it mimosa, and a surprising number think it is native to the south of France. It has been adopted to such an extent that in Europe, from Spain to Russia, there is a well established tradition that wattle is given to women on International Womens Day. We think that is entirely charming and we are proud of how much our neighbours love and enjoy this beautiful Australian plant.

To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website.