Ride Day 16: Loire Loire Loire (or to Doue-la-Fontaine)

I have taken to calling Lorie, Lorie Loire. It has an easy cadence and seems appropriate given the obvious similarities. But the biggest reason is that Lorie absolutely loves the Loire.

It was a mixed bag on the bike today. The apartment we had in Chalonnes-sur-Loire was nice, but pretty odd. It had a kitchen and dining area in one house. And a bed and bath in a completely separate house. Separate keys, separate entrances, separate everything. We had apparently rented both, but it was a really weird setup.

 

On the road and into the wine country

 

Anyway, we left our apartments early enough, about 0800. Lorie Loire had plotted several domaines (wineries) that she wanted to visit along the way on the road to Doue-en-Anjou. We actually reached the first one before 0845, and believe it or not, it was open. A bit early for me to taste wine but Ms. Loire was not bothered by the time at all. So we (read she) tried the wines. From all reports they were great. I will not complain since she knows that we cannot carry a wine bottle with us, but if we could have done....

The wine at our first domaine of the day.

The temperature rose pretty quicky through the rest of the morning and it might have been hot enough by 1030 that our coffee seemed out of place. But no.

Coffee and riding go together like hot dogs and buns.

We wanted to visit some of the many troglodyte "villages" that are in the area, so did a pretty major diversion from our planned route. We got super lost, of course. But we eventually made it. Troglodytes are, or were, cave dwellers. The cave dwellings in Arizona and New Mexico are examples of Troglodyte habitations. In this case, from about the 5th to the early 19th centuries there were communities of folks who lived in caves in this area.

We spent a few hours wandering around the Rochmenier village. They had a lot of history about the late 18th and 19th century inhabitants, but essentially none on the early cave dwellers. The later groups sought religious freedom and escape from persecution, and also the safety of the cave villages. They were fascinating. The communities were agricultural machines and were super efficient. But time caught up with them eventually and the communities were abandoned.

Entry to a wine cellar

Massive wheel for crushing walnuts for oil

A interior courtyard

Entry doors to several family caves

Community meeting room, deep within a cave

After our visit we took a long, roundabout way to our campground. It was late afternoon and hot, and we decided to upgrade to a "glamping" type of thing. It was only about 5 euro more than a basic camping pitch, so why not.