The Loire Valley offers goat's cheese lovers a paradise. It is a perfect location for a holiday meandering beside the Loire River, visiting famous historic chateaux, cheese producers and caves for wine tasting and even staying in a boutique chateau hotel if you chose. This region is justly called the Garden of France, and is sprinkled with amazing Renaissance castles open to the public and an abundance of fine wines and cheeses. Chateau du Guerinet near Blois is a perfect base for a cheese lover's Loire Valley holiday.
The Loire Valley is the starting point in the history of goat's-milk cheese in France. In the 8th Century, the Saracens of Arab descent were repelled at Poitiers. When they were expelled from France they left behind their goats and the recipes for making incredible cheese from goats milk.
The quaint villages on either side of the Loire River produce goat's cheeses of different sizes and shapes. There are six AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee) cheeses: Sainte-Maure de Touraine, Selles-sur-Cher, Valencay, Pouligny-Saint-Pierre, Chabichou du Poitou and Crottin de Chavignol. There are currently 42 French cheeses with AOC status. An AOC label indicates quality and guarantees that a product has been made within a specified region of France following established methods of production.
Valencay cheese looks like a small black pyramid. It is purported that the shape of the cheese was originally a perfect pyramid. But when Napoleon returned from a disastrous campaign in Egypt he stopped at Valencay Castle, the cheese reminded him of the Egyptian pyramids and in a furry he chopped of the top of the cheese with his sword. The Valencay goat's cheese has a rind of natural mould, covered with salted powdered charcoal and goes nicely with a glass of Quincy, Reuilly or Sancerre.
Sainte-Maure de Touraine is a blue-grey mould covered long truncated log of goat's cheese. The cheese is mature, balanced, round with salt, sourness and an aroma of walnut. This cheese is produced all year long and is nicely complimented by a glass of Chinon or Vouvray.
Selles-sur-Cher also has a rind of natural mould covered with powdered and salted charcoal. The pate is hard at first, then moist, heavy and clay-like as it blends and melts in the mouth. The taste is slightly sour and salty with a touch of sweetness. A glass of Sancerre or Pouilly Fume accompanies this cheese beautifully.
Pouligny-Saint-Pierre nicknamed the Eiffel Tower or Pyramid because if its shape. The rind is of natural mould. The pate is a soft moist white and crumbly. The taste is at first sour and salty followed by sweetness. This cheese goes wonderfully with a glass of Reuilly or Sancerre.
Chabichou du Poitou has a thin rind of white, yellow or blue mould and a delicate slightly sweet flavour. Pouilly Fume and Sancerre wines go nicely with this cheese.
Crottin de Chavignol known as Chavignol is hard black and knobbly on the surface, and the taste is a balance of sourness, sweetness and a little salt to be enjoyed with a glass of Sancerre de Chavignol.
What better way to enjoy these cheeses than driving through the Loire Valley visiting historic chateaux, maybe a hot-air balloon ride in the morning, gourmet lunch in village bistros, meeting cheese and wine producers sampling their products and returning at night to a friendly inviting boutique chateau hotel. Don't just visit a french chateau - stay in one. You will be amazed. Guests get to truly experience the grandeur of living in a french chateau. Make your next holiday a gourmet chateau holiday in the beautiful Loire Valley. If you love goat's cheese you will not regret it.
Chateau Villandry is a gem and a must see for any one with a vegetable patch in need of some inspiration. Chateau Chaumont on the banks of the Loire River holds a spectacular international garden festival every summer. Peony and rose lovers should visit the botanical gardens at Orchaise west of Blois.
Chateau Villandry owes its fame to the exceptional terraced gardens which sit on three levels and include a water garden, an ornamental garden and an ornamental kitchen garden. Eight gardeners work at Chateau Villandry full time, and plant about 60,000 vegetables and 45,000 plants in its gardens each year. Villandry is a dynamic place, the site of many activities such as the "Vegetable Garden Days" in September, the summer festival, special exhibits and workshops with the gardeners from the chateau.
The gardens at Chateau Villandry are an imaginative twentieth century re-creation of a 16th century renaissance castle garden. The moated Chateau dates from 1536 and had a formal garden in the eighteenth century. The existing garden dates from the years after 1906 when it was purchased by a Spaniard, Dr Joachim Carvallo.
He purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing the castle. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, he wished the garden to have a sixteenth century character. He created what many people believe to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere in the world.
The gardens are split into several parts: a maze made from 1,200 beech trees, a kitchen garden with aromatic herbs and vegetables, an ornamental flower garden near the castle, a children's garden with a play area, a water garden with a pond and a greenhouse garden.
An arbour of grape vines leads to a great parterre, designed as a Garden of Music. The Garden of Love is o nthe other side of the canal. Symbolising the moods of love, it looks rectangular from the chateau but is actually trapezoid. The love garden has its colourful flowers and heart-shaped box hedges laid out with square beds illustrating "Tragic Love", "Fickle love", "Tender Love" and "Insane Love". There is also the beautiful water garden with its lawns and pool of water.
But the real treasure at Chateau Villandry is the ultimate vegetable garden. It is It is bordered by espaliered apple trees, drooping pear bushes and standard roses which symbolise the monks who once tended the first medieval vegetable gardens and laid out in nine squares. Villandry is a vegetal feast, with zigzags of crazy-growing leeks, blocks of autumn pumpkins, beds of yellow and green peppers, big purple cabbages and mounds of celery all replanted twice a year with a brilliant eye for the colours of the changing seasons.
In 1934, Chateau de Villandry was designated a monument historique. It is still owned by the Carvallo family, and open to the public. It is one of the most visited castles in France. In July afer dark the gardens are lit by over 2000 candles and this beautiful vision of the gardens is accompanied by baroque music played by musicians wandering throughout the gardens.
An international garden festival takes places every day during the entire summer, on the grounds of the Chateau de Chaumont. Gardeners from all over the world produce outstanding gardens around a central theme, using nature and art together to create the contemporary effects.
Lasting six months from late April to mid-October, some 25 gardens at Chateau de Chaumont take a different theme each year - from water, vegetables and weeds to more conceptual poetry. The Garden Festival at Chaumont drawing international teams of architects, artists and stage directors as well as gardeners and landscape designers.
The theme for the festival for 2007 is mobility. Last year it was play and most of the exhibits were highly interactive and a delight to the young and to the young at heart.
The botanic park at Orchaise boasts over 2,000 plant varieties from around the world ranging from water lilies to blooming cherries. It is especially well known for its beautiful array of peonies and roses.
The Loire Valley can not help to inspire gardeners. Even Mick Jagger gyrating lead singer of the Rolling Stones, is now garden enthusiast at his preferred second residence near Amboise. He got Alvilde Lees-Milne to lay out a marvellous formal walled garden at his 15th century chateau and he has now become completely part of the garden, knowing every single thing about all the plants, the flowers, and the way the fruit trees are espaliered.
Corina Clemence has sinced written about articles on various topics from Places to Visit in, Loire Valley and Dating and Romance. Corina Clemence owns and operates Chateau du Guerinet, near Blois as an exclusive luxury chateau hotel for up to 15 people. Rent a castle i. Corina Clemence's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.