'Céré-la-Blonde' or Céré-la-Ronde – one of the quiet villages the Tour will pass through today
(Céré-la-Blonde – squeeze the blonde)

Montrichard and its fortress: where the Tour crosses the Cher

This is very much a transition stage, taking the riders from the north west of France to the more hilly Massif Central as well as the last glimpse the 2011 Tour will have of the Loire. At 218 kilomtres this is long stage (not quite as long as yesterday) and the flattest of this year's Tour.

Last year David McDuff of McDuff’s Food & Wine asked me to contribute a post on the stage from Montargis to Guegnon. He had asked me to do the same this year and suggesting this seventh stage. However, as David’s blog appears to be resting, I will post what I would have sent him here on Jim’s Loire.

The stage starts in Le Mans, famous for the 24-hour car race as well as a 24-hour motorbike race. It is also justly famous for its pork rillettes.

The stage heads south east to the valley of Le Loir towards La Chartre-sur-Le-Loir and Jasnières. Certainly some candidates here for the Vigneron of the stage, although to qualify the race has to pass right by the winery or very close to it. This rules out obvious candidates like Eric Nicolas. As I have chosen two producers from Touraine I will have to cheat and nominate at least one Jasnières producer for tomorrow's stage.

At L'Homme the race turns east staying on the north bank of Le Loir to Trôo, famous for its troglodyte houses. The late Jane Grigson, a leading food writer, had a holiday home here. Then it's on to the attractive little town of Montoire, where on 24th October 1940 Maréchal Petain and Adolf Hitler met and Petain agreed to collaborate with the Germans with the setting up of Vichy France. Montoire is on the western edge of the AC Coteaux du Vendômois.

The race crosses Le Loir here and heads south eastwards through to Le Loir's big sister. La Loire is crossed at Chaumont just beyond the most easterly point of the Touraine-Amboise appellation. Château de Chaumont's biggest current claim to fame is its annual garden festival, which runs from April right through to mid-October.

Château de Chaumont

Château de Chenonceau on the Cher

Diane de Poitiers was moved to Chaumont after she was booted out of Château de Chenonceau by Catherine of Medici, wife of Henri II, following the king's death. Obviously Catherine decided that once Henri had died there was no point allowing his mistress to remain in the lovely Chenonceau. Diane apparently didn’t find Chaumont to her taste and moved further north to Anet.

Once past Chaumont the race heads towards Montrichard and its 11^th century fortress built by Foulques Nerra that overlooks both the town and the River Cher. This is just one of the myriad fortresses where Richard Coeur de Lion was imprisoned and yet another one from which he escaped.

The bridge over the Cher linking Montrichard on north bank with Faverolles on the south

Reaching the Cher Valley brings the riders to the last vines they will see on this stage and, indeed, for the next few days. As they start the short climb out of the Cher Valley at Faverolles, they pass La Route de Tours, now a cul-de-sac but previously the main road along the Cher Valley to Tours. Here are my two Vignerons de l'Etape: Pascal Potaire (see here) and Mikaël Bouges.

Mikaël Bouges

Pascal Potaire

Next up is Céré-la-Ronde famous for its goats. There is an annual goat fair held here at the end of October. This is very much Chèvre (goats’ cheese) country and it lies in several cheese appellations including Sainte-Maure, Selles-sur-Cher and Valençay.

The last time the Tour passed through this part of the Cher Valley was in 1992 when French sprinter Thierry Marie won the stage from Montluçon to Tours. The race came through Genillé, le Liège and Luzillé and on to Tours. Overall winner that year was Big Mig (Miguel Indurain), who won the time trial the next day from Tours to Blois.

After Céré the route is gently undulating through peaceful agricultural land passing through the small towns of Nouans-les-Fontaines and Ecueillé before reaching Pellevoisin at 178 metres the high point of the stage. (The lowest point was 61 metres crossing the Cher at Montrichard.) At Buzançais there is the intermediate sprint – very late in the stage this time.

Here the riders reach the long flat approach to Châteauroux. Mark Cavendish won his first Tour stage here and he must be hoping to win again here as this is a classic bunch sprint with flat wide open roads. Cav or another sprinter could easily pick up 70 points towards the green jersey today.

The weather forecast is rather mixed - showers around Le Mans for the start becoming rarer as the riders head south. A few isolated showers south of the Cher with a dry finish at Châteauroux. Let's hope that is the way it pans out!

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Living the life in Saint-Aignan (Ken Broadhurst) prepares to watch the Tour pass today.

Array of spring vegetables at the Friday market@Montrichard

Excellent poultry from Malbran-Clement

Lower part of the market: early on

Hotel de Ville

The 'beach'@Montrichard with a light dusting of snow: 17th December 2010

This year Montrichard has two summer spectaculars based around its donjon. The programme starts this Saturday (25th) and runs through to 15th August.

Amaury, fils du Dragon is performed every day at 4pm, while 1249 - Fées et Chevaliers is performed on a limited number of evenings, starting at 10pm. See details below:

"Amaury, fils du Dragon"
Amaury, Fils du Dragon, nouveau spectacle de 45 minutes, écrit et mis en scène par Laurent Tixier, est l'histoire d'un enfant qui pour venger la mort de son père devra affronter toutes les embûches d'un monde fantastique révolu : Le Moyen Age.
Dans la fraîcheur d'une scène boisée, venez assister à des combats médiévaux virtuoses, proposés par la troupe des "Chevaliers de la Couronne de Bohème", ponctués par des danses anciennes proposées par les enfants de la troupe des bénévoles de Montrichard .....

Tous les jours, du 25 juillet au 15 août, à 16h 8€ par adulte, 5€ de 6 à 12 ans, 7 € pour les groupes

1249 - Fées et Chevaliers
1249 - Fées et Chevaliers, vous est proposé dans le magnifique site du Donjon
de Montrichard. 120 bénévoles, la troupe des chevaliers de la Couronne de Bohème ainsi que des acteurs professionnels, vous interprètent l'histoire des hommes et de leurs
relations avec le merveilleux. Un spectacle magique à découvrir en famille .....

"1249 - Fées et Chevaliers"
13 représentations, les 25, 26, 29, 31 juillet, 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9,12, 14, 15 août
à 22h: 15€ par adulte, 8€ de 6 à 12 ans, 12€ pour les groupes

Combined tickets: Billets groupés pour les deux spectacles:

21€ par adulte, 10€ de 6 à 12 ans, 17€ pour les groupes

Further details from the Office de Tourisme, Montrichard

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Montrichard's donjon (fortress) was built in 1010 by Foulques Nerra, the Count of Anjou, whose nickname was the black falcon. There is a detailed account of the history (in French) of the donjon here and an account of Foulques Nerra's life.

The fortress of Montrichard

Noted wine writer – Ned Halley reports:

I must put in a word for the Jim Budd travel service. Being off in May by car to Bergerac, my wife and I wished to overnight halfway between Boulogne and our destination. The Loire Valley made sense. Knowing Jim’s local expertise, I rang him up. He recommended the lovely old fortress town of Montrichard, on the Cher, suggesting a chambre d’hôte at La Villa Marguerite. This town-centre, riverside grande maison, he advised, is run by a couple of young gentlemen late of the Paris couture business. Bernard Bardiot and Jean-Marie Bataille fitted the model. We have never seen hair-dos like it. But they were the soul of hospitality, and their house chic but comfortable. Our smart de luxe ensuite room (no 4, price 85 euros), with an unforgettable view over the Cher, made Mrs Halley très contente.

The Cher@Montrichard with bridge designed to fool the devil as each arch is different. I'd never realised that the devil was that stupid!

Bernard recommended the restaurant Les Truffaux 30 seconds walk away in the square but we took Jim’s tip to try La Villa, 35 seconds away, also in the square. Very good menu at 18 euros and a surprisingly rewarding Loire Gamay half litre at 5. We ate al fresco and service from la patronne was swift and good-humored.

Breakfast at La Marguerite was an experience. It was a full house of four impeccably groomed French couples plus us, with Bernard and Jean-Marie masters of ceremony at opposing heads of the magnificent table. The conversation naturally turned to events in England, and we defended our fine institutions of state as best we could. When we were asked which corner of Albion we came from and confessed to Somerset, one wit cried, “Ah, le Cote d’Azur d’Angleterre,” to which I modestly responded “Oui mais sans le soleil.” This sparked an immediate chain of consequences from around the table: “Et sans le chaleur!” and “Et sans la mer!” and so on, causing a great deal of joyful laughter.

If all chambres d’hôtes were like this, we would stay nowhere else. Idiotically, for our return stop we did book elsewhere, a recommendation from an Alistair Sawday guide. It was awful.

La Villa Marguerite 8 quai de la république - 20 rue Sully, 41400 Montrichard 33 (0) 2 54 32 76 67. Online at lavillamarguerite.fr

Visit this morning to Paul Buisse, a long established family négociant in Montrichard, mainly to taste some of the 2008 whites but also some of the rest of the range.

Claudine and Paul Buisse

Paul points to his birth year

Fungus growing on the barrels in the cellars.
The barrels are cleaned every two or three years.
The cellars at Paul Buisse are unusual as they rise upwards
instead of down, which is the norm.

To be continued .....

Photo: CRM

Above and below: ice floes speeding down the River Cher at Montrichard this morning. Just shows how cold it has been.

There is a useful list of market days in southern Touraine on the Les Saveurs du Val de Loire site. The area covered runs from Chatillon-sur-Indre to Bléré and across to Mantelan.

Montrichard and its fortress

Worth adding to this list is the small Sunday morning market in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher and the large and very good market in Montrichard on Friday morning.

Loches market and a saucisson stall

(30th August 2008)

On one of the few hot days in Touraine during August 2008 in Touraine we came across a ploughing contest at La Fosse Richoux, near Montrichard, by the crossroads of the road from Pontelevoy and Montrichard with that from Bourré to Chaumont.

I’ll leave the pictures to tell their story: