Our family is traveling to the Loire for around a week in late July this summer. Two kids 11 and 9, along with another family who are not wine people. We are staying in a house a few km west of Saumur.
I have read all the threads on WB on Loire travel. Does anyone have any restaurant, wine bar recs in the Saumur area. Looking for 1-2 max nice restaurants, maybe more along solid bistro that our kids will tolerate. Maybe a lunch place in Chinon where we will probably spend one day tasting? Any markets we should not miss.
I wil probably be abel to get a max of 4-5 winery visits without causing family rebellion.
I’m thinking
Chinon:
Baudry and Plouzeau
Bourgueil
Gauthier and Chevalerie
Saumur
Filliatreau
I’ll probably go in the weeds on my serious tastings, but if anyone has any recs about a more civilian type tasting our friends might like in town with reasonable wine, or any good places to have a few fun glasses of wine or a good wine store in the area, it would be much appreciated.
Any kid friendly activity recs as well.
We will likely be spending days doing outdoor activities with the kids on most days maybe a good lunch and cooking at the house. We can cook and any good markets would be appreciated.
I can’t remember the names and it’s been 10 years ago, but went to a couple of bars in Chinon and in one of them we got ourselves an outside table in a beautiful part of the town to sample local wines. I remember wait-staff coming out with bottles after bottles, carrying them in metal buckets pouring into our glasses whatever we pointed out to. Cheap, too!
In Saumur, specifically at the Filliatreau winery, my wife arranged for our group to taste and include a delicious 4-course lunch in their beautiful tuffe-cave, next to their tasting venue, overlooking the vineyards. An fyi in case it’s of interest.
If anyone in the family is interested in horses, the French national equitation school (which had its origins as a military equestrian school) is in Saumur. Like the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, it is one of the historically important schools of equitation. https://www.ifce.fr/cadre-noir/
Assa. One of my favorite dining experiences ever. Michelin Red and Green starred. Husband and wife team. If you’re really into food, I recommend asking to sit upstairs so you can watch Anthony and he’ll actually serve you a course.
One of the other highlights for me was their interest in wine education. Of course restaurants of this caliber in France know their juice, but with many of our pairings we were given a main glass and a small pour of an opposite-aged vintage of the same exact wine (what I mean, is one aged minimum 10 years and one very young) so we could compare and contrast. I don’t know if it was because the sommelier was feeling cheery that night or it’s a baked in part of their service, but it was very appreciated.
Edit: Wellllll, it’s been some years and I forgot that it’s not close to Saumur (I was based in Tours)… So a 2 hour drive to dinner might not be in the cards
