I enjoyed very much this excursion in the Loire Valley: beautiful landscapes and nice encounters.
There are some interesting aspects of this region: the gardens of the Loire valley (Jean-Louis Sureau-manager of the Château d'Amboise- speaking about the quietness and the security after the Hundred Years War and about the the creation of great gardens next to the castles-, Marie-Sylvie and her garden at Rochecorbon-the collaboration of the jardiniste conseil Stéphane, the festival international des jardins at Chaumont-sur-Loire, the garden as an "oeuvre-d'art vivante"), the Château de Rivau and its rose garden ( the perfumer Nicolas de Barry smelling the roses, the reconstitution of old perfumes), the picking of wild plants and the cooking ( Emilie Boillot and her botanical walks in the forests with the chefs Gaëtan and Elisa, the elderry and the wild garlic, the restaurant "L'Evidence" at Montbazon, the chef Gaëtan preparing young pigeon meat with peas and herbs), the Parc oriental de Maulévrier ( the greatest Japanese garden of Europe- 24 hectares and about 400 plants, the head gardener Didier and the pruning of the yew trees-the shape of clouds-, Hervé Raimbault speaking about the story of the Japanese garden, the taiko music in the park, in the night the lights and the gongs), the Loire Sauvage (the photographer Nicolas Lenartowski, the great biodiversity of the Loire Valley, the picture of the cormorants on the sandbank,the pictures taken from a helicopter), the guide Joris Leclercq and the canoeing in the wilderness of the Loire river), Camille Peschard and the equestrian trails along the river ( the draft horses, the cultural visits-the Fleury Abbey at Saint-Benoît and the Château de Chamerolles-, the participation in the Fêtes de Jeanne d'Arc at Orleans-the knight with armour) and the underground galleries along the Loire river ( in the market of Saumur Selim Salim and his mushrooms growed in an underground gallery, the stonecutter Jean-Claude Gazeau and athe story of the abandoned "tuffeau" quarries, the mayor Sylvie Taugourdeau and the troglodytic hamlet of Bourg-Neuf-Dompierre-sur-Loire-,the cave transformed into a guesthouse).
I enjoyed the encounters of Raphaël de Casabianca with the owner of the Villandry castle Henri Carvallo, with the head gardener Laurent Portuguez and the gardeners Oswald and Véronique, with the gilder Della Louis-Durandet and the tower owner Axel Fontaine in Blois, with the chef Christophe Hay and the fishermen Patrice and Sylvain, with the boatman Clément Sirgue and with the former mayor of Chédigny Pierre Louault; nice encounters with very kind men and women.