Loire Valley

Château de Brissac

First off, we travel to France, to the heart of Loire Valley, where a towering castle dominates the landscape, known as the Giant of Loire.

The Château de Brissac is the tallest castle in all France, seven stories high, 204 rooms, and walls that have borne silent witness to a thousand years of human drama.

But grandeur,

Origins

of the Chateau The roots of Brissac stretch back to the 11th century, when the Counts of Anjou first built a fortress here.

The Loire Valley was a prize worth fighting for, and the castle soon became a battleground in the endless feuds between French nobility.

By the 15th century, the castle had been reconstructed into a grand residence.

Surviving charters show Queen Matilda, William's wife, bequeathing to a Norman nunnery a chosable made for her by an English embroideress and a second richly embroidered robe that she had commissioned an English woman to make.

In the 12th century, the Abbey of Saint-Laurent of Saumière in the Loire Valley near Angers emerged as a center for fine textile production.

And at least one scholar, George Beach, has suggested that the bio-tapestry was made there.

But the evidence that the Abbey had a textile workshop in the late 11th century is far from conclusive.

So this year we are 90 years old.

Muscadet has been, as you know, in the Loire Valley, on the western coast of the Loire Valley.

And the main element of Muscadet, the only grape we have to use, is Melon de Bourgogne.

Or Melon B. for the people that want specific things.

JohnLet's move on.

Now, down in the Loire Valley, Olivier Joly, the mayor of the village of Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert, has signed an official decree banning tiger mosquitoes from the town.

The reason they are banned is their repeated low-level or circular flights and their bites that are likely to cause annoyance and exasperation.

That was a quote, of course.

No

...

in, uh, in the Loire Valley.

Um, I mean, the town is also doing other stuff.

The other thing is if you do find somebody that maybe specializes in a certain part of the world for like where you're going, like the UK or France.

Like I found some great information for the Loire Valley through a blog, and I just happened upon that website and their blog, and they had wonderful information.

So if you have somebody there that you feel like maybe you've already followed and you trust the information that they're giving you, and maybe they're even pointing you to some resources, that's not a bad place to start as well.

Yeah, 100%.

Where's Orleans?

Uh, it's in, it's in the, uh, Loire region.

Really?

Yeah.