Chaumont sur Loire

Another beautiful day in the Loire Valley. We hopped on our bikes to go to Chaumont sur Loire.

It was a nice 20 km bike ride from Blois, mostly on farm roads and forest trails along the Loire River. Pretty much everywhere we rode we heard shotguns and saw hunters with their dogs, flushing birds out of low brush and dead cornfields. They love to hunt in France.

Chaumont was a smaller Chateau, but it had such a classic fairy-tale castle look about it, perched on a hill, overlooking the Loire. We had heard that they do some fantastic modern art installations on their grounds and the International Garden Festival there was not to be missed.

I love the odd histories of places like this. Catherine de Medici owned the castle, and she entertained her favorite astrologer Nostradamus here before giving the place to her husband's mistress. How kind of her.

The servant's quarters upstairs was unrestored and filled with a modern stained-glass exhibit, and you can really see the amount of work involved with keeping a huge old building kept up.

I did sneak a little knitting in...

On such a nice day, I wanted to spend some time in the garden and see all the fun modern art they had set up.

In an old barn: a sea creature diorama, made with stuff you would find in an old barn.

It reminded me of some of the large-scale stuff they do on Governor's Island every summer.

Creepy crochet people in the woods....

No flat tires, no missed trains. Good food, good wine. Pretty much as easy as a weekend trip can be.

I'm pretty much in love with the idea of doing the entire Loire à Vélo now. Or, erm, maybe realistically just a chunk of it. Any takers?

Loire Weekend- à Vélo!

A beautiful fall weekend calls for getting out of Paris.

We hadn't been to The Loire Valley yet, so I did a little research to figure out a good trip for just a weekend. What really attracted me to the area was the Loire à Vélo, the 800km long bike trail that follows the river from Never to Orleans, and then all the way out to the Bay of Biscay. You can bring your bike or rent one. You can have your bags forwarded or pack a little bike trailer. You can hop on a train with your bike if you want to skip around a bit. You can rent a bike in one place and return it down the trail when you are done with it. You can arrange to stay in B&Bs on the way or camp. The way the whole system is set up makes it a breeze to plan. The whole region is flat as a crepe and ideal for cycling, with lots to see and do along the way.

Obviously, we couldn't do all 800 km in two days. Someday maybe...it would be a great way to spend a fair-weather week or two in France and I would be willing to look into it if anyone wants to go with me.

I choose the town of Blois as our home base for the weekend.

It's two hours from Paris by train via Orleans.

It had several Chateaus within reach, and a few of the trails loop around at Blois so you don't have to take the same trail twice.

Blois has a Renaissance Chateau, winding cobblestone streets that lead up to a cathedral, and a big stone bridge that crossed the Loire.

We rented bikes, shopped the early morning market for the day's picnic lunch, and started on our way.

Rather Predictably, a Post about Rhinebeck

NYS Sheep and Wool festival was a Magical Shopping Experience this year, as always. The weather was beautiful, the trees were ablaze with color, the company was excellent.

The fleece sale had some rather impressive selections:



Not all mine, of course. More on those later. It was refreshing to see other people fleece-crazed spinners haul off much more than that.



Also, anytime I think of telling regular everyday people that I go off on the weekends to paw through fleece, I'm pretty sure they get a mental image of this:


Therefore, it's best that I just stick with the story that I was "Upstate for the weekend with friends".

Perverse as it might be, lamb dishes abound and are delicious. The lamb chili is just what you need to take the chill off.



Afterward, the sheep give you disapproving stares, but I assure you, the guilt is totally worth it.


This was an Oxford sheep, which, incidentally, I find unspinnable, or at the very least, not a lot of fun to spin. Therefore, it's a meat breed. Guilt absolved.

This Lincoln Ewe was sweet as can be, and super-soft to boot:








I don't think I had ever seen karakul sheep in the flesh before, but as soon as I touched one, I was like, "Oh, it's a karakul".






Angora goats, reluctantly being shown. They were all like, "Don't judge me."







The yarns were beautiful-





These are gorgeous skeins of natural-dyed yarn from Hope Spinnery in Maine.

Best of all, it was great to catch up with friends.



They were good to have around- we talked each other out of several purchases, and yet somehow facilitated several more.


photo from KnithoudBrooklyn.

We all left a few dollars poorer, but richer in fiber. We are like bran in that way. It's really what makes the weekend great.

Oh, also: Uma Thurman was there, and she rear-ended someone coming out of the parking lot in her giant black SUV.


She was tall and willowy and very elegant looking, and not really handling the situation as I would have expected The Bride to (which is a good thing).