The gorgeous city of Saumur within the Loire sits about 3 hours south of Paris, Caen and Saint-Malo. Well-known for its Loire Valley wines, picturesque château and equestrian historical past, Saumur is an ideal spot for a protracted weekend.
Framed by vineyards and rivers, Saumur is stuffed with elegant townhouses constructed from the native white tuffeau limestone creating a robust visible identification, bolstered by a surprising château that overlooks the city. With a wealthy historical past, fantastic wines and a year-round programme of occasions, Saumur is an outstanding vacation spot.
What to see in Saumur
The city centre is generally flat and straightforward to discover, with 64 historic monuments together with a photogenic city corridor and half-timbered buildings on the Place Saint-Pierre, the place a weekly market is held on Saturday mornings. Alongside acquainted chain shops, you’ll discover unbiased boutiques, vintage outlets and Barre de Chocolat, a wonderful artisan chocolaterie that has been tempting locals and guests for almost twenty years.
As you meander via the centre, you catch glimpses of the spectacular Château de Saumur perched above, guarding the city for greater than six centuries. Lately, the château hosts cultural occasions, with open-air movies projected onto its partitions in summer season. You possibly can stroll right here from the centre – avoiding the river method for those who’re not a fan of a steep climb – and luxuriate in its panoramic views, pattern lunch in L’Orangeraie bistro or take a guided go to to be taught concerning the citadel’s wealthy previous, structure and museum collections. Followers of horse-riding will notably admire the equestrian exhibition within the higher flooring, together with the complete skeleton of the English champion racehorse, ‘Flying Fox’.
Saumur has a protracted equestrian historical past and was house to the Cadre Noir, the elite French Horse and Driving Institute based in 1822 by King Charles X (brother of the beheaded King Louis XVI). Now primarily based 5 km west of the centre, it stays a extremely prestigious faculty for classical driving and presents a daily programme of galas and shows.
Loire Valley Wines
It will nearly be impolite to go to Saumur and never pattern the native wines, together with the regional speciality crémant, a lightweight, glowing wine much like champagne. You’ll discover all kinds of producers and cellars in Saumur, together with Louis de Grenelle – though you might miss it because it’s 12 metres underground, stuffed with hundreds of bottles resting on the good temperature! The land round Saumur options acres of well-tended vineyards with producers of each pedigree and dimension, most of whom provide wine-tasting visits.
Curious visits
Observe the Loire 5 km northwest and also you’ll attain the really wonderful Pierre et Lumière (stone and light-weight), a subterranean sculpture path in a former quarry, splendid for escaping the rain or highly regarded climate. This circuit options 20 hand-sculpted recreations of native landmarks in unbelievable element, from châteaux to parish church buildings, carved from a block of limestone or instantly into the quarry wall.
Subsequent door is the Musée du Champignon (mushroom museum), which is surprisingly fascinating! The hands-on tour explains how mushrooms have been grown for hundreds of years in these underground caves whose temperature and humidity provide splendid rising situations.
Within the different route, 15 km southeast of Saumur, the UNESCO-listed Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud is a should. Its 900-year historical past contains 36 abbesses, Richard the Lionheart, the Aristocracy, royalty and criminals (learn extra about it right here).
Treats for the tastebuds
Native meals specialities embody la fouée, little pockets much like a pitta, historically made with scraps of bread dough and stuffed with savoury treats. Equally scrumptious are les galipettes, giant mushrooms full of butter, shallot and crème fraîche.
These with a candy tooth will admire the pommes tapées (flattened apples), which you’ll find within the village of Turquant, 9 km southeast of Saumur. To make the apple harvest final all year long, locals would peel the apples, bake them in a bread oven till they dried out, then flatten them artfully with a mallet.
For a night meal, it might be laborious to beat L’Alchimiste, a comfy and genuine restaurant seating as much as 20 diners. Its husband-and-wife crew provide refined, delectable dishes in an unpretentious, welcoming setting.
To go to close by
You probably have a automotive, drive alongside the Loire to discover the beautiful villages on both facet of Saumur together with Montsoreau, which has a flea market on the second Sunday of each month. At Turquant, remember to stroll to the artists’ centre constructed into the rocks; it seems like a film set and provides you a glimpse into troglodyte residing.
The Bioparc of Doué La Fontaine is a very distinctive zoo, (18 km from Saumur). Their ethos is about biodiversity and defending threatened species: the two,000 animals have loads of house to roam in limestone settings that really feel natural and pure.
Chateaux galore
Saumur is near lots of the Loire Valley’s most spectacular chateau together with the beautiful Chateau de Rivau with its fairy tale-like gardens, the royal fortress of Chinon, Ussé AKA the “actual sleeping magnificence citadel” because it’s gloriously fairly and was the inspiration for French creator Charles Perrault to put in writing the Belle au Bois Dormant, the Sleeping Magnificence, story, and the Chateau de Brissac, which, at seven tales, is the tallest citadel in France
Data image: ot-saumur.fr/en
By Annaliza Davis – an editor, translator and author. She lives in Brittany after falling in love with the realm on a faculty alternate and likes to discover the coast together with her scruffy canine Mimi!
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