Loire

France lured me forth, the realm that I had crossed so lately, journeying toward the snow-clad Alps.

But now relinquishing the scrip and staff and all enjoyment which the summer sun sheds round the steps of those who meet the day with motion constant as his own, I went prepared to sojourn in a pleasant town washed by the current of the stately Loire.

Through Paris lay my readiest course, and there sojourning a few days I visited in haste each spot of old or recent fame, the latter chiefly.

From the field of Mars down to the suburbs of St. Anthony, and from Montmartre southward to the dome of Genevieve.

Philosophic war led by philosophers, with harder fate though like ambition such was he, O friend, of whom I speak.

So Beaupuy—let the name stand near the worthiest of antiquity—fashioned his life; and many a long discourse with like persuasion honored we maintained.

He on his part accoutred for the worst: he perished fighting, in supreme command, upon the borders of the unhappy Loire, for liberty against deluded men, his fellow-countrymen; and yet most blest in this, that he the fate of later times lived not to see, nor what we now behold, who have as ardent hearts as he had then.

Along that very Loire, with festal mirth resounding at all hours and innocent yet of civil slaughter, was our frequent walk; or in wide forests of continuous shade, lofty and overarched, with open space beneath the trees, clear footing many a mile, a solemn region.

The well-timed conversion to Christianity and to the Catholic form of Christianity which followed this victory facilitated the next great conquest of Clovis.

In the year 507 he went forth to war against Alaric, king of the Visigoths, defeated and slew him, and thus added Aquitaine, that large and fertile region which lies between the Loire and the Pyrenees, to his dominions.

Four years after this he died, but in the next generation, between 524 and 534, his sons conquered Burgundy, and thus added to their father's kingdom the whole valley of the Rhone, from its source to its mouth, except the narrow but rich land of Provence, which was retained by the Ostrogothic kings of Italy for a few years longer.

But in 536 this also became Frankish.

Burgundy and Aquitaine, though they do not formally resume their independence, are often seen as separate kingdoms under a Frankish king.

But the more important division, the more fateful rivalry, separates the two northern kingdoms, which eventually receive the names of Neustria and Austrasia.

In Neustria, which contained the regions of Flanders, Normandy, Champagne, and central France as far as the Loire, there was doubtless a very large Gallo-Roman population, though its numbers may not have so enormously preponderated over those of the Teutonic immigrants as in Aquitaine and Burgundy.

The Roman language and some remains of Roman culture survived here in Neustria and were preparing the ground for the formation of the medieval kingdom of France.

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.

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.

My grandfather was a wine merchant at the beginning of his life.

So he was buying grapes or wine, bottling, selling it.

And he bought the Chateau Chasse-Loire, where we have the Contre-Loup, we're going to taste it at the end, in 1953.

And my grandmother, she had a winery as well that's called Chateau Loise-Lunière.

When the invasions first began, they returned home each fall with their summer harvest.

Later on, as a matter of convenience or of necessity, because the leaders had been outlawed, they made winter camps on islands near the mouth of the Seine, Loire, and other rivers.

In 795 they made a descent on the coast of Ireland.

In 841 and the succeeding years, different bands sacked many parts of Gaul.