Loire River Valley

CC and i spent the weekend biking around the Loire Valley. It was amazing. The pics dont do it justice. Saturday we biked 50 miles, and CC was great. I think she really only knows how to ride beach cruisers, but once she figured out how to use the gears she could almost keep up! I shouldnt be talking because i was sore as hell that night. We biked to Villandry then Azay de Rideau then Languois, then back to our hotel. The next day we biked through vouvray to ambois. all the chateaux we saw were like out of a book. i dont know what book, but some book probably has settings in big houses like these. All of the chateaux were awesome but i guess Villandry stands out because of the crazy art inside. Sunday, after being really sore, we went to Vouvray on our way to the spectacular chateau of Amblois. We figured on a sunday wineries would still be open since it is still the weekend. not so. so we knocked on some random houses anyway and these old ladies were nice enough to let us on a tour of their caves and give us tastings. Vouvray is built into the limestone cliffs and hills that over look the river valley. 99% of the houses in Vouvray have caves that are centuries old and probably over 50% of those are being used for wine. The places we went to on sunday were run by little old ladies and their families. They were really nice and did it all for free, we tried to pay, but they wouldnt let us even though we were bothering them on a sunday.
Monday she took the early 6am train back to paris so she could get to work. i decided to stay back and check out more wineries. glad i did. learned a lot and except for the rainstorm(i had to hole up in some vineyards' garage with their cats until they opened at 2) it was awesome. vouvray was deadsville monday. maybe because it was supposed to rain more than it did. I walked around all of the wineries (in vouvray all of the wineries are where their caves are, their vineyards are on top of the bluffs). I tasted some really good wines, in the u.s. the dry stills seem more well known, but here it is just as much about the sparklings and the nectars. all of the wine ladies made sure to let us know that their sparkling is just as good if not better than champagnes. my last stop was at Mark Brenif which was the only thing close to a big Napa or Sonoma winehouse than the other little houses. it was nice though, and they gave me an extensive tour of the caves with an english speaking girl who was doing an internship there. Then i took the city bus back and the front of it was full of all these down syndrome little french people. At first i thought they were on some kinda group tour but there was no one watching them and they were getting off at different stops by themselves. I guess they have some kinda workplace they go to during the day out in the country. they were all adults and all spoke french and they were loud and fun. it was cool.