Chinon's primary history surrounds the fortress dating back to the 11th century. The structure itself is nothing like the chateaus and palaces we have been visiting, this is more of a ruin.
We did not tour the actual fortress on the advice of our new found friend. We did explore the roads and alleys leading away from it where there are amazing old cave homes.
As the immediate area is really cliffs down to the river, people carved out homes in the face of the cliffs.
Today, rich city folks are renovating them into unique homes, part of their house makes use of the caves.
The authorities closed off many of them, and the local kids we were told opened them back up for hang outs.
We stopped at a market, purchased some chips, wine and some glasses (drinking out of the bottle is so not French) and ate our lunch on the river.
Found the tourist information centre which has wifi, where we updated the blog then walked again for a couple more hours before returning back to our room.
We had arranged a tour of the winery with our host for 6pm. A couple from Germany joined us for the tour.
This vineyard/winery does about 120,000 bottles per year. They have 20 huge stainless steel vats. All the wine is stored in the hollowed out rock.
This area stays at a steady 12 degrees and 74% humidity which she says is ideal for the aging of the wine. They do some with oak.
We did some tasting and she gave us the bottle of the stuff we thought was our favourite.
At the moment (8:30pm Mon) it is pretty much empty so I guess we will be buying some more in the morning.
Tuesday is transition day as we head north to Normandy. Will update Wed.
Awesome photos....I am hoping that Sharon is collecting the dessert recipes along the way!!! MMmm
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