Touring Saumur (France): Visiting the
Cadre Noir Equestrian Museum by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
My
husband Laurent and I ran home from work to go on a long weekend trip to the
Loire Valley town of Saumur. I cannot
think of any drive that qualifies as so much landscape eye candy as this drive
through the Loire Valley.
The
cave homes along the Loire Valley charmed me as usual. I wanted to own one of those “troglodyte”
homes with their window boxes full of red geraniums cascading down in front of
them.
“You
can rent one for a vacation. I do not
want to own one. They have spiders and
centipedes in them,” Laurent said.
The
romance of permanent air-conditioning and perfect temperature for storing wine
wore off with the centipede remark.
The
cave housing led us into downtown Saumur where we met Laurent’s friend from the
air force when they had to do mandatory military duty in France. (This mandatory military service has been
disbanded now.) We ate dinner that night in a restaurant called
La Serre (The Green House) at the Hôtel Roi René.
Roi
René was the King of Anjou from 1409 to 1480.
He was beloved by his subjects.
We drank an excellent, sparkling wine with our meal that gave us a
touring idea for the next day.
We
went to bed full and happy. The next day
we went on a tour at Gratien and Meyer, which produces a champagne-like wine
that tastes like Asti Spumante from the Piedmont region in northern Italy that
produces the red wine Barolo.
After
the tour, we drank excellent Angevin wines with our meal. Our cocktail was the sweet wine from Anjou
called Quarts-de-Chaume. The wine tastes
similar to Sauternes, but it is much more difficult to find in the US than
Sauternes.
For
our starter dish, Laurent and I ate a seafood platter with Savennières wine.
Our
main dish was roast leg of lamb that we drank with a Saumur Rouge. For dessert, we had the French upside-down
cake called Tarte Tatin followed by a strong espresso coffee.
After
this meal, we visited the Angers château and the equestrian museum. Saumur is famous for its Cadre Noir
equestrian team.
Saumur
was once a Protestant stronghold, but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in
1685 caused mass migration to regions with more religious tolerance: England,
the Netherlands, Berlin, and South Carolina in the United States.
The
Decorative Arts Museum interested me the most with its collection of enamelware
from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
There was also a luminous French porcelain collection from the 17th
and 18th centuries.
The
Equestrian Museum has displays about equestrian culture from all periods and
cultures. Horses have never interested
me too much, so I probably missed much of the significance of the items on
display.
I
did understand that horses were like the tanks of their day. The only people who could ride the horses
were aristocrats and royalty.
Suggested
Reading:
-
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
--
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
-
Le Cadre Noir de Saumur by Guillaume Henry and Alain Laurious
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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