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.