Saturday 3 April 2010

Saumur

The town of Saumur has a lot going for it: on a beautiful site on the banks of the Loire, it is home to famous sparkling wines, the French national equestrian team, two beautiful castles, and... a mushroom museum. The motivation for today's visit was the interest of one of our guests in the horses, but other options beckoned too.

We discovered that there was an international stunt horse riding competition going on, with free entry, so we went along to take a look. The horses ran in circles, while team members took it in turns to ride, and perform acrobatics. Amazing, dangerous and impressive. There's only two pictures here, since most of them came out too blurred. Second pic courtesy of our guests.




















Then on to the mushroom museum. This is in fact a working mushroom farm that delivers tons of mushrooms of various types to the markets each year. Did you know that to replicate the thundery conditions in which Shitake mushrooms are grown, they have to be drenched and shouted at in order to be cultivated? And apparently the mushrooms that grew in my garden last Autumn are edible. If my posts suddenly stop around that time this year, you'll know why.







































After the mushrooms, on to some tasting of sparkling wines. No photos needed, but we now have a small stock for future use :) Finally, in Passing, Saumur is farther South than Les Hallais, so here at least, the Primroses are already out.

5 comments:

Tim Trent said...

Whom do they employ to yell at mushrooms? Can couples having a shouting match go there to be paid to have a row?

Mark In Mayenne said...

That's a good plan. Is that for the ten minute argument or the full half hour?

ReedBunting said...

Or at least the mushrooms growing in your garden looked like the edible ones! I think the French must have a museum for everything...

The bike shed said...

I shall never think of shitake mushrooms in quite the same way again. Porchini are my favourites - in risotto with white wine; in fact, Samur would be good

the fly in the web said...

I've always liked Saumur.
I wonder if 'Le Trianon' still exists....

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...