{"id":7686,"date":"2026-06-09T03:37:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7686"},"modified":"2026-06-09T03:37:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:37:46","slug":"7-sancerre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7686","title":{"rendered":"7. SANCERRE."},"content":{"rendered":"

Next stop, Camping Les Portes de Sancerre, which is located conveniently NOT in Sancerre but in the town of Saint-Satur, some five or six kilometres distant.\u00a0 I suppose if you arrive by boat it could be defined as the “Gateway to Sancerre”.\u00a0 And, indeed, we did arrive from that direction.\u00a0 Coming over the Loire, we had to make an immediate and extremely sharp turn into a very narrow street.\u00a0 We enjoyed blocking the main road in both directions so much, that when we missed the next turn into a tiny street leading to the campsite, we had another go.\u00a0 We looped back onto the road we arrived on, but in the opposite direction.\u00a0 Now we have a slightly less difficult turn and block the road for far less time.\u00a0 And we didn’t miss the campsite road this time.<\/p>\n

Having baked in 33\u00b0C heat at our last un-shaded site, we deliberately chose a pitch in the trees.<\/p>\n

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Shame because several sunny pitches had great views of the river.\u00a0 Everything is a compromise!\u00a0 However, on the plus side, we shared the big tree by the caravan with a family of nuthatches and a couple of woodpeckers!<\/p>\n

We headed straight to the hilltop town of Sancerre.\u00a0 It’s why we came.\u00a0 We had promised our neighbours, Rob and Yvonne, we would do some research on their behalf.\u00a0 They have been known to consume the occasional bottle from this region!<\/p>\n

We arrived conveniently on Monday 25 May … Bad timing!\u00a0 The previous two days had seen the town packed to the gunwhales with people celebrating the town’s wine fair!<\/p>\n

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Undeterred, we passed the compulsory church …<\/p>\n

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And meandered through the narrow streets decorated with parasols …<\/p>\n

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… in search of a suitable place to learn about the local wine and it’s production.\u00a0 Joseph Mellot has an outlet shop in town.\u00a0 Degustation is possible, but more importantly, the shop is “manned” by a charming lady with excellent knowledge and great English.\u00a0 Just what we need!<\/p>\n

First she gave us a general introduction to local viticulture.\u00a0 She introduced a map of the “AOC” (Appellation d’Origine Contr\u00f4l\u00e9e).\u00a0 This was defined in November 1936.\u00a0 Another very forgettable fact!<\/p>\n

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Apparently there are 330 separate family vineyards covering a total area of 3,000 hectares on the east side of the Loire valley.<\/p>\n

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Our host and instructor had great English – I think I mentioned that.\u00a0 But she had one REALLY good expression.\u00a0 “I’m going to MAKE you taste the wines so you can see for yourself!”\u00a0 Definitely “make” not “let”!<\/p>\n

We asked “Why are Sancerre wines so expensive?\u00a0 Is it the steepness of the vineyards that makes mechanisation impossible?”\u00a0 The questions hung in the air.<\/p>\n

Well, yes, many of the steeper areas are worked totally by hand.\u00a0 More cost effective mechanical methods are being introduced in the flatter regions, but a lot of the work there is still done by hand.<\/p>\n

The number of plants per square metre is strictly controlled.\u00a0 Also, the amount of grape juice per plant is limited to about one litre per year.\u00a0 (Actually, the yield of Sancerre blanc is limited to a maximum of 0.6 litres per m\u00b2.)\u00a0 This is controlled by only allowing a set number of bunches of grapes to develop on each plant (five or six).\u00a0 I’ve read the technical rule book – well a part of it – and there’s a lot of talk of “yeux francs” and “baguettes”.\u00a0 But I don’t think they are talking of “honest eyes” and “bread sticks”.\u00a0 It’s more about the number of shoots allowed…<\/p>\n

A cynic’s assessment of these answers might be that the rules of the AOC are deliberately set to limit production and so keep the price up.\u00a0 I think I’m a cynic!<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three basic soil types in the region.\u00a0 These influence the taste and balance of the final product. Clay with limestone (yellow areas on map above), stony calcarious soil (murky green – that’s the colour on the map, not the colour of the terroir) and flinty ground (orange).\u00a0 We were told what characteristics each soil type induced.\u00a0 We were MADE to try several wines and attempted (and largely failed) to detect the differences.\u00a0 Different weather patterns had significant influences too.\u00a0 In the next round of tasting we tried to determine which wines were produced in sunny years and which were cold and wet vintages.\u00a0 Largely failed again.\u00a0 The aspect of the vineyards, whether facing the sun or not and the height of the “canopy” can moderate the effects of the soils and climate.\u00a0 (Totally the exam failed!)\u00a0 The individual winemokers, of corse, add their influence.\u00a0 Entirely knot sure we know wot coloured wine drinking we are, but there’s a plessant buzz in the hair.\u00a0 Method of storage woz another facter.\u00a0 Sitting on thmm floor, we thort we could detector which wines had stored been in oke barellls, witch in glass an thos steel stainless inn.\u00a0 Tink wheel just by da cheepest stufff.<\/p>\n

We were woken at closing time and kicked out on the street!\u00a0 Only 6 km to drive!\u00a0 “Which side of the road should I be on?”<\/p>\n

We must have got home OK, because this is a view of the R. Loire looking downstream from the path outside the camp ground.\u00a0 Canoeing permitted, swimming not.<\/p>\n

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Today we have an expedition to Suilly-la-Tour, a bit to the east of Saint Satur.\u00a0 Firstly the compulsory cooling off session in the village church where we found a tableau of statues.<\/p>\n

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This represents the “trial” of Jesus.\u00a0 Pontius Pilate having his hands washed by a slave.\u00a0 Jesus with representative guard and an angry local.\u00a0 After the church, lunch at the Auberge de L’Acotin across the street.\u00a0 Another excellent chance find.\u00a0 Follow the locals!\u00a0 Usually works!\u00a0 We nabbed the last but one table – and that was taken 20 minutes later.\u00a0 Complet!<\/p>\n

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Glenda about to tackle a prawn concoction.\u00a0 Very tasty.\u00a0 Afterwards, it was Donzy’s turn to be inspected.\u00a0 A bit further up the road, we are now about 25 kms east of base.<\/p>\n

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What was I saying about degrees of dereliction in the old centres?\u00a0 Here we have several properties desperately trying to avoid falling into the R. Nohain which wends through and under the town.<\/p>\n

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This is the main street through the middle of Old Donzy.\u00a0 Dozy might be a better name.\u00a0 Everyone was either away on holiday, asleep or possibly dead!<\/p>\n

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The essential town hall.\u00a0 Excellent free parking.\u00a0 But there’s very little reason to visit this part of town unless you work for the mairie.<\/p>\n

It’s just too hot for anything.\u00a0 We deviated from the “main” road onto a microscopic alley in the tiny village of Congy.\u00a0 We were looking for shade for a siesta.\u00a0 We are heading towards a wood on a hill.\u00a0 Now we are on a disappearing, rough gravel track passing stacks of logs waiting to be extracted.\u00a0 But we are in shade.\u00a0 There’s no obvious place to turn, but we will worry about that later.\u00a0 So we park mid-track and will worry about passing tractors later, too!<\/p>\n

To leave, I did have to drive into the edge of the adjacent vineyard and make a 43 point turn.\u00a0 Amongst the usual ramshackle housing in the village, there was one magnificent new building pretending hard to be an ancient timber-framed house.\u00a0 But failing in the attempt.\u00a0 The straight roofline was a dead giveaway!<\/p>\n

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On the camp site there was the usual collection of Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, German and French campervans.\u00a0 Plus us and a delightful Irish couple.\u00a0 David and Victoria.\u00a0 We had him pegged as a retired brain surgeon, and that turned out to be a fair guess.\u00a0 More of a head, neck and shoulders oncologist.\u00a0 With experience of doctoring in Queenland!\u00a0 As promised guys, you made it into one of the world’s least read blogs!\u00a0 Thank you for your company.\u00a0 We enjoyed spending time with you and particularly liked your comment about “fecking slammy slidy door things” when referring to small campervans!<\/p>\n

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About 25 km upstream, the town of La-Charit\u00e9-sur-Loire is home to a massive abbey behind the Eglise-de-N\u00f4tre-Dame-de-La-Charit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

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Actually, the “abbey” is in fact a priory, we discover.\u00a0 A priory (at least in this case) is a monastery ruled as a satellite by it’s mother abbey.\u00a0 La Charit\u00e9’s “mother house” was Cluny Abbey, a Benedictine monastery.\u00a0 The priory was built first,\u00a0 then the church and then the settlement that developed around the religious buildings was named La-Charit\u00e9 after the good works the monks did in the community.<\/p>\n

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There’s a bit of a clue that the priory lies near the northernmost extent of the Camino Trail network!<\/p>\n

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The church (viewed here from the monks’ garden) is undergoing extensive repairs and renovation to the masonry and roof outside and to the stained glass windows inside …<\/p>\n

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There are always a lot of florists in French towns …<\/p>\n

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… as well as a lot of opticians, hairdressers and patisseries.<\/p>\n

There are also a few really odd shops like this bric-a- brac store which has a resident guard-cat which always sleeps on duty in the window!<\/p>\n

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And on the subject of weird things, Saint-Satur has a massive viaduct which used to carry a railway and is now just a communal, high-level walk or cycleway.\u00a0 Wish we had known earlier!<\/p>\n

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But!\u00a0 Look closely.\u00a0 You can see something protruding from the left-hand pillar (or the right-hand pillar if coming the other way).\u00a0 It’s a giant tap.\u00a0 Un robinet g\u00e9ant.\u00a0 Installed on Glenda’s birthday in 2020 by local artist Jars Pecil.\u00a0 His last installation.\u00a0 A Tap for a Tapp.\u00a0 I must have commissioned it as a present and forgot to tell her!<\/p>\n

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And finally, yes, I do realise one is not supposed to swallow wine when tasting.\u00a0 But it’s much more fun if you do!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next stop, Camping Les Portes de Sancerre, which is located conveniently NOT in Sancerre but in the town of Saint-Satur, some five or six kilometres distant.\u00a0 I suppose if you arrive by boat it could be defined as the “Gateway… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7724,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions\/7724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}